BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 21, 2019– Peruvian national Louis Marroquin and Columbian national Edgar Vargas Vaca, two of three men charged with 2 counts of preparation to commit a crime, to wit, to fraudulently take money from a Scotia Bank ATM machine, were freed of the charges when they appeared today before Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts Anderson.
The prosecutor, Sergeant Carmen Selgado, said that she was in possession of a memorandum from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution directing that the charges against them were to be withdrawn.
The charges against the Chilean national, Juan Espinosa, were not withdrawn.
All three men were arrested and charged after the police found them in a restaurant in Dangriga, and inquired who the owners of the two vehicles parked outside were.
Police allege that the vehicles contained paraphernalia that they believed were used to scam ATM machines.
The three were arraigned on the charges by Magistrate Patricia Arana on January 21, 2019, and they were denied bail because of being deemed possible flight risks. They were remanded into custody until March 27.
Despite the fact that the charges were withdrawn from Marroquin and Vaca, however, they were not released. According to a report, they are being kept in custody due to their immigration status in Belize.
Marroquin was represented in court today by attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley.