_{Ezbert Felix Ramclam Jr., aka “Shuga”}

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Apr. 9, 2025

A Government of Belize (GoB) employee has been charged for the theft of 43 Chromebook laptops in February of this year from the Government Bookstore located on Saint Joseph Street.

On Saturday, March 29, 2025, Ms. Ingrid Acosta, 40, a Belizean project coordinator at the Project Execution Unit of the Ministry of Education, located in Belmopan, Cayo District, reported to the Crimes Investigation Branch that between February 19, 2025, and February 28, 2025, unauthorized persons had removed 43 Lenovo Chromebooks from a storage facility at the Government Book Store compound located on Saint Joseph Street, Belize City.    

An investigation led police to the discovery of nine of those laptops all the way in Orange Walk Town—the first three of which were found on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at theSan Larenzo Housing Site in Orange Walk Town, with several more being found later. After it was confirmed that the laptops were stolen from the Government Book Store warehouse, the laptops were handed to CIB personnel in Belize City.

As part of the investigation, police recorded several statements from persons in Belize City and Orange Walk.

According to police, in one report, a 59-year-old Belizean entrepreneur of Orange Walk reported that a man known to him as “Shuga” who worked at the Government Book Store sold him (9) Chromebooks in February 2025.

As a result, 43-year-old Ezbert Felix Ramclam, Jr., aka “Shuga”, a government warehouse manager, was detained on Monday, April 7, 2025, and charged by police on Tuesday, April 8, for the offense of theft. He was arraigned on Wednesday morning in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court on Coney Drive on a single charge of theft.

It is alleged that between February 18, 2025 and February 28, 2025, in Belize City, Ramclam stole 43 Lenovo Chromebook laptops belonging to the government that had a value of $787.50 each (with a combined value of $33,862.50).

Ramclam, Jr., who was represented in court by attorney Ronnel Gonzalez, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

There was no objection to bail being offered to him, and so the sitting Magistrate of Court #5 offered him bail in the sum of $3,000 plus one surety of the same amount, or two sureties of $1,500 each, which he met.

Ezbert Felix Ramclam, Jr., is due back in court on June 4, 2025.