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GeneralBZ$131 million worth of cocaína!
In a bust that is an acute embarrassment to the Police Department, five police officers were arrested in connection with a drug plane that reportedly landed on the Southern Highway, in the middle of the road.
  
Also embarrassing is the fact that one of the police officers arrested is the driver of the Queen’s reporesentative in Belize, the Goveror-General.
  
A member of the Customs Department was also arrested in the bust, the biggest in recent memory – 80 bales weighing 2,604 kilos (5,728.8 pounds), with an estimated Belize street value of $131,762,400.00.
  
On September 12, 2005, Dangriga police were given a tip-off and officers visited the Tobacco Caye Range in Dangriga’s waters, where they found 99 bales totalling 5,000 pounds of cocaine.
  
This time, quick police response to a report of an unauthorized aircraft landing in the middle of the Southern Highway led to the discovery of the aircraft, the 80 bales of suspected cocaine in another location and the arrest of the six men, who were not found in the immediate vicinity of the aircraft.
  
Five of the men were found driving a vehicle a few miles from where the plane was discovered. Amandala was unable to find out where the sixth officer, Sergeant Vidal Cahjun, was found.
  
The officers are Corporal Nelson Middleton, 39, who is also the driver for the Governor General; Corporal Renel Grant, 33, attached to the Belize City’s Traffic Branch; Sergeant Jacinto Roches, 42, a resident of #22 Tangerine Street, Belmopan, currently attached to the Internal Affairs Desk, Belmopan; Sergeant Lawrence Humes, 38, a resident of #2 Grapefruit Street, Belmopan, currently attached to the Belmopan Police Station, Sergeant Vidal Cahjun; and Harold Usher, 36, a resident of Finca Solana, Corozal Town, a Grade 2 customs security assistant, for the Customs Department, Belize City; Usher was also an Anti Drug Unit officer before going to Customs.  
  
Cahjun was charged in the Punta Gorda Magistrate’s courtroom of Magistrate Leslie Hamilton, with two charges of kept firearm and kept ammunition without a gun license, while the other 5 men were charged with a single count of kept ammunition without a gun license.
  
The Independence police southern formation were alerted in the early morning of Saturday, November 13, 2010, around 2:00 about a Beechcraft twin-engine aircraft, model 300-FA 137 #N786B Super King Air 200, which had landed in the middle of the Southern Highway, between Mile 56 and 57.
  
At this first location, police also found an Atlas brand car battery along with 2 pieces of board attached to 3 lights on both sides of the road; this was used as landing lights. 
  
The plane had apparently been abandoned by its pilot and other occupants. An inspection of the plane showed that its left wing had been damaged, apparently hitting nearby trees upon landing. 
  
Independence police also teamed up with the Belize Special Assignment Group (B-SAG) in order to swiftly comb the area. The five police officers were caught inside a white van traveling from the direction where the aircraft was located, in Bladen Village. The police team intercepted the white van at the San Juan Bus Stop; the occupants and vehicle were taken to the Independence police station.
  
Arresting officers searched the van and found Anti Drug Unit uniforms; other wet clothing; 2 car batteries, Atlas brand; muddy jungle boots and tennis shoes; food, and a licensed 9mm firearm belonging to Harold Usher.
  
The team of regular police officers continued on their investigation of the neighboring vicinity where between Miles 59 and 60, they made another discovery, this time of a white container truck which had (23) 17-gallon plastic containers, three tanks of about 500 gallons of aviation fuel inside each tank, three fuel pumps and twelve pine logs.
  
In the vicinity of the Hicatee Village, located around Mile 69 and 70 on the Southern Highway, about 5 to 10 yards into the bushes, police located a GPS (Garmin brand), four hand-held radios, an Iridium Satellite phone (a type of phone which uses a satellite to connect to anywhere from anywhere in the world), two flashlights, a Colt .223 semi-automatic rifle with serial #007865 and a magazine with 5.56 live rounds, and two camouflage jackets.  
   
The 80 bales of suspected cocaine were located about five miles away from the Hiccatee area, about ¼-mile into the bushes at Mile 65, close to the Genus Saw Mill. 
   
The suspected drugs were labeled with a Columbian drug cartel logo, a black scorpion and the Star of David, in red.
   
The discovery of the suspected drugs was made around 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13, 2010, after an all-day search. Seventeen of the 80 bales were in loose packages.
   
Reports of another suspected drug plane landing in the area were denied by Minister of Police, Douglas Singh, during an interview with Amandala.
   
Information reaching us at press time tonight is that a third vehicle, a 7-ton dump truck, was also seized on Saturday, November 13, 2010. Reliable police sources have confirmed that the truck was found in the immediate vicinity of where the suspected cocaine was located; the truck is currently parked inside the compound of the Punta Gorda police station, and is registered to a resident of Punta Gorda.
   
Police did not reveal what the dump truck contained.

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