CHETUMAL, Mon. Feb. 1, 2016–Two Belizeans who had been facing major drug trafficking charges in Mexico have been freed of the charges and sources on the local front indicate that the two men are expected to be transferred to Belize this week.

Reports out of Chetumal were that back in February 2013 the men were among 8 persons detained after a Mexican Marines raid yielded 45 kilos of crystal meth, said to have been valued at around US$1 million, at the home of Carlos Cabañas Catzín, aka “El Monstruo,” on Benito Juarez Avenue in Chetumal.

The men are Ermelindo Vázquez of Orange Walk and Hugo Casanova of Corozal, who was last year cited by Mexican authorities in connection with a double murder in Mexico in 2013, in which a pregnant woman and her husband were murdered.

The Quintana Roo news source, Por Esto!, reported yesterday that Casanova and Vasquez had been freed due to lack of evidence. They were freed by Mexican judge, Reynaldo Piñón Rangel, and were reportedly passed over to Mexican immigration officials.

Fabiola Juárez López and Rosa Patricia Morales Olán, two of eight persons who were also arrested in connection with the drug raid, were released on January 26 and the two Belizeans were released on Friday, the news report said.

Defense attorneys had argued that the detention was fraught with irregularities, and there was no warrant to authenticate the raid.

The four other individuals who were arrested – Carlos and his brother Néstor Alberto Cabañas Catzín, Luis Juárez López and Alejandro Lugo Courtenay, continue to face trial for drug trafficking.