BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Jan. 23, 2020– A suspected drug plane, a Hawker jet-HS 125, flew over Mexico, and unable to land there, landed in Belize yesterday morning. Villagers in the northern area of the Belize District heard the plane circling, until it eventually made a safe landing. It was discovered on a stretch of road in the northern area of the Belize District.
After the plane landed near Lemonal Village and traffickers were able to discharge its cargo, police arrived on the scene to find the empty jet that flew in from Venezuela.
Belize’s law enforcement authorities were provided with the flight progress of the plane, but those who controlled the plane’s flight path, unexplainably, were able to elude authorities.
Commissioner of Police Chester Williams told the media that police have since been deployed to the area, which has proved difficult to access.
“We have since deployed our officers to the area and it is not an easy place to reach; it is extremely rough terrain. From [the time] we got the information, we mobilized and we couldn’t get to the area because of the mucky terrain. All the police vehicles end up bogging, and those are vehicles with four-wheel drive. And they couldn’t get to the location,” Commissioner Williams told the media yesterday.
Commissioner Williams said the plane was heading to Mexico, but it turned around and landed in Belize around 3:00 a.m., because Mexican authorities were on alert to intercept it.
Commissioner Williams added, “Late yesterday evening, we were notified of the plane coming out of South America, and as we normally do, we deployed our officers to all the known locations where we believe the plane would have landed. The plane, from what we were made to understand, flew over Belize and went into Mexico and was going to land in Mexico, but the Mexican authorities had their air assets up—three of them, I was told—and the three air assets that the Mexican authorities had up prevented them from making the land in Mexico.
“And so they came back over to Belize and went to land in that very unusual area. That was around 3:00 a.m. or thereabouts this morning.”
Police are of the view that the plane’s cargo, believed to be illicit drugs, is still in Belize.
Commissioner Williams said, “Despite that, though, we still do believe that the content, and we believe it is drugs, is still in the country, and we have teams out in the area searching the entire area, hoping that we will find those who have the drugs in their possession. From what we gathered from the Mexican air recognizance, there were three vehicles seen in the area of the plane, two of which had heavily armed men, and we believe, a pickup truck containing the drugs, and so those are the vehicles that we are looking for right now. We know that there is some road or makeshift road that they can go through that area, and go through the back and into Mexico, so we have also looked to see how we could cut off that outlet and try to see if we can force them out to the highway. So police and BDF are in the area, and we are hopeful that we will be able to find the cargo.”