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COST team dismantled

GeneralCOST team dismantled

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Nov. 17, 2021 — The Police Department’s Commander of Operations Strike Team (COST) has been officially disbanded in the wake of a drug bust in Bladen Village, Toledo earlier this month that led to the arrest of several members of this auxiliary anti-narco trafficking unit who are suspected of facilitating the landing of a drug plane in Belize. In a media briefing, the Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Kareem Musa, made the announcement and further revealed that the Belize Police Department has received a court order to extract data from the four cellular phones that were found at the scene of the Bladen Village plane landing.

The department believes these cell phones may provide critical information about the extent of the officers’ involvement in the operation and may further strengthen the case against those four officers who were arrested and charged for facilitating the landing. The cell phone data will also enable investigators to possibly identify more potential suspects and persons of interest. Any person listed as having been contacted by, or in communication with, the users of the devices will be brought in for questioning, said Hon. Musa.

Minister Musa claims the disbanding of the COST team had to be done as a precautionary measure. As for the former commander of that unit, Assistant Commissioner of Police Marco Vidal, he has been relegated to a desk job. Minister Musa has additionally indicated that at the present time, ACP Vidal is on personal leave. He further noted that currently no one is free from suspicion, and anyone could be a suspect.

“Everybody– police and civilians – can be a suspect in this case. This is an open investigation, and so if it is that the evidence…as you know, there were four cell phones found at the scene. We have already gotten the court order to access the contents of those cell phones, and if it is on that cell phone, there is a message to you, we will naturally bring you in for questioning. It doesn’t mean that you are guilty, but we have to look at everybody as a suspect. So it doesn’t matter if it is the Commissioner down to a constable or an ACP or a DCP; whatever the case may be, everybody has to be a suspect. And so, this case is by no means an open and shut case. We have to look at all angles,” he said.

Minister Musa also criticized the actions of Corporal Elmer Nah and ACP Marco Vidal. Minister Musa said that while the stash of firearms and ammunition found in Nah’s possession was registered property of the Belize Police Department, Nah was not to be in possession of such weaponry, since he was off duty at the time of the incident. Hon. Musa stated, “The ammunition that he had was assigned, and it is from the Police Department, and it is excessive in my personal opinion. He was on leave, so he was not ought to have had that ammunition.” As it pertained to Assistant Commissioner Vidal, Musa suggested that the release of Vidal’s immediate family member — the wife of his nephew, Corporal Nah — was highly unprofessional. He also said that anybody found to be exerting influence to try to assist those individuals who were found at the scene; those high-ranking officers need to be personally dealt with.”

Musa further said that he had a discussion with the head of the US-Based Drug Enforcement Agency, who will be assisting in the investigation.

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