BLUE CREEK, Orange Walk District, Fri. May 14, 2021– In the late hours of Thursday night, a luxury business jet carrying suspected cocaine landed in Blue Creek, in northern Belize. What could later be seen, in air asset surveillance footage, is the swarming of the plane by a group of armed persons — at least 60 persons, reportedly— who were deployed to the landing site and who unloaded the aircraft’s suspicious contents in record time.
The seating inside the jet had reportedly been taken out prior to its flight, making space for almost two tons of illicit cargo, now believed to be across the border, in Mexico.
The Minister of Home Affairs. Hon. Kareem Musa, told local media that security personnel were deployed to the area just 30 minutes after the alleged landing. They were reportedly taken to the exact location of the landing by a local from the area.
According to Minister Musa, however, by the time those personnel arrived, the aircraft was empty, and it is suspected that any cargo it had contained had already been transported to our northern neighbor, Mexico.
Musa also believes that there is a high possibility that Belizeans were involved in the execution of this illicit operation.
The last bust of a drug plane resulted in the detention of 9 Belizeans, inclusive of law enforcement personnel. This took place a little over three months ago and resulted in the confiscation of 2 bales of cocaine.
Unconfirmed reports of another aircraft landing near Little Belize have been dismissed by law enforcement. The BDF airwing and police were on the ground in the area and said that they found no signs of a landing.
When the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, was interviewed this morning, he said that, contrary to what was previously reported, the aircraft’s flight originated in North America, and not South America. He confirmed that the Mexican air asset did detect almost 60 men offloading and guarding the aircraft.
“Sometime around 2:00 a.m. we were told that the track had gone into Mexico and, based on that, the teams that were in the area withdrew to some extent, and then couple minutes later we were told by an individual that a plane went down in the Tres Leguas area and, based on that, we quickly deployed the team to that area. They got there within half an hour of receiving the call, but when they got there they only found the plane. The contents were gone. We did some searches in the area and we followed some tracks, and the track led directly into a village on the Mexican side. The river [was] extremely low, so the vehicles crossed over and went into Mexico, so we are certain that the cargo that went in the plane went immediately over the Mexican side,” Commissioner Williams said.
The luxury jet, worth close to half a million dollars, will now be stored at the BDF air-wing in Ladyville with the three other suspected drug planes that previously landed in the country.
