Photo: (l-r) Karim Osman, Elexa Taylor Chism and David Blake Pendergrast, the alleged mastermind behind the theft of the catamaran

BELIZE CITY, Fri. Oct. 27, 2023

Tonight, three American nationals are in lockdown pending their expulsion from Belize within the next three weeks to a month after they were caught in Belize illegally, and were unable to present their visitors permit on demand to an immigration officer.

The bizarre story surrounding how 45-year-old David Blake Pendergrast, a self-proclaimed lawyer; 26-year-old Elexa Taylor Chism, a bartender; and 29-year-old Karim Osman, a bar owner, were caught in Belize sounds like something from a fictional novel or movie, but is a real-life event that did not end well for a trio of Americans from Texas, USA.

Reports are that the Texan trio, along with a toddler in a prom, wound up in Belize after they allegedly stole a $1.5-million-dollar catamaran from the Pier 66 Marina in the Bahamas, took it on an adventure tour around the world, and ended up in Belize; and that’s where the cruise ended on a sour note for the trio, as they were caught after being nabbed by police in San Pedro for shoplifting liquor.

While the theft charge against the trio was dropped by the virtual complainant in San Pedro, the police alerted the Belize Immigration Department after they linked them to the missing catamaran; and they were charged with an immigration offense when they could not present their visitors permit on demand to an immigration officer.

They appeared before a magistrate in Court # 4, where they all pleaded guilty to failure to produce a visitor’s permit on demand to an immigration officer and were fined $1,000 each plus $5.00 cost of court, which they were ordered to pay forthwith, or, in default, they would be sentenced to one year imprisonment.

A removal order was granted by the court for their expulsion from Belize by November 24, 2023—the period that the Immigration Department has indicated would be sufficient for the trio to be properly documented with help from the US Embassy to travel back to the USA.

By the end of the day on Friday, none of them could post payments of the fines, and they were all escorted to the Belize Central Prison.

That’s where they will remain until they are able to pay their fines—as they indicated they will be doing—or until they have fully served the one-year prison term before they could be sent back home.

In court, the trio were unrepresented.

The trail followed by police in linking the trio to the missing $1.5-million catamaran seems to indicate that these three American nationals pretended to be ordinary tourists exploring Belize, until they were caught shoplifting.

As outlined previously, apart from being shoplifters, the trio are also believed to be alleged international boat thieves as well as child abductors.

That’s because a 1.5-million-dollar catamaran named Tifosi was stolen from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last month, and the trail taken by the boat thieves was from there to the Bahamas, then to Grenada, then Isla Mujeres in Mexico, and finally to Ambergris Caye in Belize, where their cruise came to an end.

And when the trio were accused of stealing liquor on the island, San Pedro police stepped in after responding to an island community chat that made mention of a trio who had been shoplifting, and they were detained.

Sources tell us that the police along with the San Pedro Immigration Department linked the three Texans (who claimed that they forgot to declare their arrival to the Immigration Department) to the missing $1.5-million catamaran, after they began to look deeper into their reasons for being in Belize.

By this time, the catamaran, renamed Aries—which the trio had told the Immigration Department in an interview was the boat they sailed into Belize—had been identified as the missing $1.5-million catamaran named Tifosi that had been stolen from its owner in Fort Lauderdale in late September.

Contacts were then made with the US Embassy, and an investigation led to the detention of these three suspects.

Checks by authorities into the trio later revealed that David Blake Pendergrast was wanted by the United States of America in connection with the theft of the $1.5-million catamaran allegedly stolen from Pier 66, which was last seen in the Bahamas.

It is believed that onboard the catamaran were a woman, two men, a toddler and a dog.

The toddler which was in the care of the trio was placed into custody. As it turns out, the child had been kidnapped, by his father from his mother.

Sources close to the investigation into the trio told us that the three Texans worked together, and that the toddler was allegedly kidnapped by the child’s father, while Blake Pendergrast allegedly stole the catamaran and is believed to be the mastermind behind the theft of the vessel.

Our sources say that Osman used the child stroller to store items stolen during their shoplifting.

According to one article shared with us, the catamaran belonged to a Canadian automotive executive and race car driver, and it was stolen from her berth in Fort Lauderdale and taken to the Bahamas late last month.

The catamaran, which is a white, 58-foot 2015 Fontaine Pajot Ipanema, worth $1.5 million dollars, that is difficult to disguise, was named Tifosi but later bore the name “Drip”.

The article further went on to say that there is a $20,000 reward for information leading to the boat’s recovery.

The article further said that the catamaran pulled into Hawk’s Nest Marina on September 26, 2023, and left early in the morning two days later without payment being made for dockage or $2,650 worth of diésel fuel.

The writer of the article further mentioned that the owner stated, in reference to Pendergast, “When he came in here, he was a very, very nice guy. That’s how he portrayed himself. He was very polite. ‘Thank you, sir’, ‘No sir,’ Please,’ and all that stuff…”

The skipper identified himself as “Blake”.

The office put the details of the credit card used to pay for the boat on file, but when Drip departed a couple days ahead of schedule, and they tried to access payment for fuel, water and dockage, payment was denied. The card was in the name of Oliver Capot, Tifosi’s actual captain, who is 58 and from Fort Launderdale.

According to the article, Tifosi’s theft was reported to Fort Launderdale police by Capot’s son, Benjamin Capot, 23, who worked on the boat as a deckhand and carried out maintenance of the boat when she was docked at Pier 66 Marina.