Photo: Brigadier General Azariel Loria, Commander of the BDF
by Charles Gladden
LADYVILLE, Belize District, Wed. Dec. 21, 2022
Belize’s law enforcement agencies have become accustomed to the discovery of marijuana plantations in the country, but any cocaine that has been found in the country has usually been smuggled from overseas. However, the BDF came across what appears to be a novel enterprise that has been taking shape in the southernmost part of the country—three plantations on which there were a total of 120,000 coca plants, from which cocaine is derived. The discovery was made on Monday, December 19, near the village of Graham Creek in Toledo, just a little north of the Sarstoon River that separates Belize from Guatemala. It was a joint patrol consisting of members of the Belize Defence Force, the Coast Guard, and the Police Department that came across the secret plantations, and there was also reportedly evidence of preliminary attempts to set up cocaine labs in the area.
According to Brigadier General Azariel Loria, Commander of the Belize Defence Force, there were 10,000 plants ranging from two to three feet in height on one plantation; 20,000 plants of similar height on another plantation, and 80,000 plants on a third plantation.
“This morning, there was a special operation conducted in that area you mentioned, southwest of Graham Creek. It is a small village close to the Sarstoon, about a mile and a half north of the Sarstoon where we discovered three plantations, coca plantations. But, that was something bound to happen. The Guatemalans they have destroyed some three to five kilometres to the south of that general area where we discovered the plantation,” Loria said.
He added, “We will keep patrolling the area and we caught this on time. They were not mature yet, [they] had been recently planted.”
No one was present at the time of the discovery; however, Brigadier General Loria noted to reporters that an investigation will be carried out to determine who’s responsible for the plantation and to determine whether there was any recent human activity in that area, as the plantation is close to Graham Creek Village.
“… There has to be some activity in that area. Remember that the farms are not too far away from that same village that I told you about,” he remarked.
He further noted, “The area in question, usually the transnational criminal organizations they look for remote areas, and that is a remote area for them to conduct their illicit activities. The police cannot reach there. We have operational reach, and we can reach up to all the confines the country of Belize and that’s what we are doing. Usually, the Belize Defence Force conducts air flights, air reconnaissance missions and looking around our borders to see if those plantations, those illegal activities are happening.”