Suspected sicarios detained on Monday released into Min. of Immigration’s custody

Love News has been reliably informed that Police have detained five more Mexicans.  We understand that the men were detained at a construction site in Ladyville, Belize District.  The men reportedly entered the country illegally, and their purpose in the country is being investigated.  Meanwhile, the suspected Sicarios who were in Police custody have been released.  Those six Mexican nationals suspected of being cartel hitmen are now in the hands of Belize’s Immigration officials who will now handle the matter of how they entered Belize.  Our newsroom understands that the Police’s investigation did not gather sufficient evidence to lay charges against the men, and with the 48-hour rule of detention, the men were released.  The media met up with Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa, who gave further insight into the investigation.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “As you are aware, about 48 hours ago or so, the MIT specialized unit of the police department in Corozal identified suspicious individuals within the vicinity of the Corozal Town Park. These individuals were detained and upon their detention word quickly spread across the border and that is when some social media news outlets released allegations that these individuals were perhaps Sicarios or cartel members. We have been doing our local investigation and international investigation, liaising with our counterparts in Mexico very closely and getting information from them. And what I can say is that so far nothing has come back to indicate that they are in fact cartel members. And so what may be transpiring and the Commissioner of Police alluded to it in his interview, is that perhaps these men came across the country, came into the country looking for work and there may be others who are actually engaged illegally working on job sites. And so that is kind of where the investigation is currently going, but of course it is still open. We are still waiting for further information from Interpol in relation to these individuals but it is now in the hands of immigration. It is still open, so I don’t want to conclusively rule out anything. Like I said, we are engaging hour by hour with our Mexican counterparts and Interpol. And so as of right now, 3 p.m., we haven’t received any information to that effect. As far as I’m aware, they did enter legally.”

Reporter: So there’s nothing yet in relation to whether the passports may be false?

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “We have received information, I believe, from the Mexican Embassy that they are valid, validly issued passports.”

There are contrary reports circulating, including the story that these men are hitmen with a Mexican cartel who were assigned to kill someone in Corozal; the other story is that the men were here seeking employment with a road construction company.  There were also reports of involvement of the UNDP which Minister Musa clarified.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Yeah well, I think that the UNDP will be making a release because that again was preliminary information that was provided to the commissioner from interviews with these individuals. And so they may have provided false information as to their purpose in Belize. And if it is that they’re here to work and illegally work, obviously they would give some sort of misdirection as well because that is also illegal. And so you have to look at that information that the commissioner shared as what was initially put out there. And so at the end of this investigation, both from the police and from immigration, we’d be better able to give a particular detail of all of these aspects.”