ORANGE WALK TOWN, Wed. Aug. 12, 2020– After testing negative for the COVID-19 virus yesterday, three Immigration officers who were busted with about 8 pounds of compressed marijuana, which is believed to have been obtained from a Mexican drug runner, were released from an Orange Walk quarantine facility, into which they had been placed on Tuesday, August 5, for a mandatory quarantine after they were busted.
The officers were then taken to the Orange Walk Town Police Station, where they were charged with drug trafficking.
The officers are Stephen Williams, 36; Albert Llewelyn Munnings, 41; and Wilmer Justin Cocom, 26. They were taken to the Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court yesterday, where they appeared before Senior Magistrate Merlene Moody, who read to them a charge of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply to another.
Reliable information to us is that all of the officers pleaded not guilty, and were offered bail of $10,000 plus two sureties of five thousand dollars each.
The officers were able to meet bail and were ordered to return to court on September 23. They were represented by attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley.
The men were found with the marijuana on the afternoon of August 6. Police said that, acting on intelligence they had received, they were manning a roadblock in Carmelita near the Toll Bridge on the Philip Goldson Highway when they intercepted a Mahindra pickup.
Traveling in the pickup were three Immigration officers. The pickup was searched and 22 packs of marijuana were found in a cartoon box in a drawer in a cabinet in the vehicle’s pan. The Immigration officers were present when the drug was found.
The drug, the vehicle and the three Immigration officers were taken to the police station, where the drug was deposited as an exhibit and the pickup was impounded.
Joseph Myvett, Assistant Commissioner of Police, said that an investigation carried out by the Police Department revealed that the officers had been to one of the border areas, where it is believed the drug was obtained.