by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Wed. May 14, 2025

After declaring a State of Emergency (SOE) earlier this month, the Belize Police Department has detained over 100 gang-affiliated persons and confiscated a number of firearms as well as a considerable amount of drugs and ammunition.

_{l-r: Superintendent Jefferie Gabourel, Operating Commander of GI-3; ACP Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander for the Belize Police Department’s Eastern Division; Dr. Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police; and Inspector Stacy Smith, Staff Officer at the Office of the ComPol}

“A total of 118 persons were detained under the State of Emergency. Out of those 118, 49 detention orders were issued after a thorough investigation and evidence assessment; and during the operation, we also had several firearms seized,” said Dr. Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police.

Superintendent Jefferie Gabourel, Operating Commander of the police’s GI-3, highlighted the department’s seizure of 16 firearms – ten 9mm pistols, one .25 pistol, one .38 revolver, two shotguns, and two .23 rifles, as well as ammunition—fifteen 40 caliber rounds and ninety-seven pieces of 9mm ammunition.

“These firearms will be packaged and forwarded to the National Forensic Lab for analysis to determine if it is connected to any other previous crime. Based on that, the investigation will continue,” said Commissioner Rosado.

Additionally, 3,326 grams of cannabis and 997 grams of cocaine were seized.

The SOE was put into effect after a series of shootings that followed the attempted murder of Jimmy Rojas, while he was on Tibruce Street in the St. Martin De Porres area, which is considered the territory of the Peace in the Village (PIV) gang.

“After the death of Brandon Baptist, the threat level was high and with the shooting of Rojas, it went to a critical level. We took decisive action; hence, we recommended the gang intervention period, known as the State of Emergency. The main reason was to enable us to disrupt the criminal operations and to give the investigators uninterrupted or unimpeded investigative access. Hence, the operation, the recommendation, was made for the State of Emergency. After the situation rose to a critical level, the State of Emergency was activated,” Dr. Rosado noted.

Commissioner Rosado, when speaking to reporters, made reference to the sequence of shootings that prompted the declaration of the SOE. In the days before that declaration, there had been three murders in the Belize District within less than 48 hours: the killing of 36-year-old Aaron Lindo in Double Head Cabbage, and 37-year-old Nelson “Mung” Henry in Ladyville, who were allegedly affiliated with the PIV and Back-a-Land Crips (BLC) (rivaling groups) respectively, then the murder on Ebony Street, Belize City, of 31-year-old Kadeem Orozco, who Commissioner Rosado said was not a known gang member, but may have been targeted due to the area in which he resided.

The areas in which the SOE was put into effect included a number of high-tension territories in the Cayo District and Belize City, but did not include Hunters Lane, where the recent murder of Zinedine Pinelo occurred. Commissioner Rosado said that the area is not in a critical state which would have led to its inclusion in the territories in which the SOE is in effect.

“The areas selected under the State of Emergency were based on a threat level, and once it was considered at a critical threat level, it was included in the State of Emergency. In the incident where Pinelo occurred, the threat level was not critical for us to designate it under the SOE,” he said.

Reports have been circulating of gang affiliates handing over drugs and ammunition to the police in order to be freed from their SOE-triggered detention, but Commissioner Rosado denied those claims.

“Any alleged suggestion that our police officers are lenient with violent offenders is inaccurate, and it’s just another attempt to disregard the dedicated effort of our police officers and the integrity of operations. Now, many of the firearms that were seized were based on the interrogation and the extensive interview that was conducted with those individuals. And based on that information, the operations were conducted,” he said.

Notably, a curfew is also in effect in the areas that have been designated SOE zones. In those areas, minors must be off the streets and at home by 8:00 p.m.

“The curfew implemented in the State of Emergency is only for minors,” said Inspector Stacy Smith, Staff Officer in the Office of the Commissioner of Police. “Though we are under a State of Emergency, it is always important that we know that whatever limits we put on people’s constitutional rights, it is only to the extent necessary. If it is not deemed necessary, it is not recommended and will not be implemented. So, there is no [overall] curfew, because while we deem that the situation has reached a critical level, we believe the efforts we can undertake can be realized within the ambit of those provisions in the SOE,” she added.

The SOE is set to last for a month, but could be extended.