BELIZE CITY, Wed. Feb. 23, 2022– Personnel from the Belize Police Department are currently en route to the Graham Creek area of Toledo, where they believe a drug plane landed last night in the heavily vegetated terrain. On the previous night, Monday, February 21, another drug plane landed near Carmelita Village in Orange Walk. The team of police stationed to intercept that landing were impeded by strategically placed spikes on the road for at least three hours, giving the narcos ample time to move their cargo, likely South American cocaine, across the border into Mexican territory.
According to Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police, Belize’s Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) had been tracking both the drug planes before they arrived in the country’s airspace, and each of those planes which landed, on consecutive nights, had been one in a pair of planes that were headed in our direction.
While sharing information about the first of the two landings with local reporters, Commissioner Williams explained, “Night before, we had two tracks coming, and again we were out monitoring, one of the track came and flew over Belize, and the other one maneuvered several times and in several areas as if it was trying to find a place to land and it disappeared off the radar, so we lost communications or sight of them from the radar, and when it did reappear again, it’s because we were told that it had landed in the Faiya Bun area I think—that’s somewhere behind Carmelita Village in the Orange Walk District.”
Williams further noted, “I must say that we had a team in that area in Carmelita and that team quickly made their way to the location, but while they were doing so, apparently the traffickers had placed spikes on the road, and the spikes caused damage to all the tires of the vehicle, so that disabled the team from reaching the location within a timely manner.”
When the police finally arrived at the scene of the landing, following what was at least a three-hour delay, only the Saberliner jet was found. No narco-traffickers or cargo were in sight.
“By the time another vehicle came to assist and get the team to the location, the plane was found without its cargo, We continue to conduct operations within that area with a view to see if we will be able to locate the cargo and those persons behind this landing.” said Williams.
In reference to the second landing, which took place last night in Toledo, the Police Commissioner said, “And then, again last night, we were monitoring two tracks again. As we normally do, we deploy our personnel across the country in different areas and around 1:00 a.m. this morning one of the planes hovered over the Bladen area for about 20 minutes. We had a team there. We believe that they may have suspected we had teams in that area, so they went Kanantik area, and we had a team there as well, and they circle there for like 10 minutes, and perhaps they figured something was wrong. Again they moved on and went down south.”
Williams went on to state, as previously mentioned, that police believe that the plane may have landed in a heavily vegetated area of Graham Creek, near the Belize/Guatemala border.
“Again, that is an area that is heavily vegetated, and it does pose significant challenges to the security forces to get to that location, and so I believe that’s the reason why that area was chosen. I can say at this time that we have not confirmed that landing, but we have all reasons to believe that the plane did land in that area. “ Williams said.
Teams of officers, as previously stated, are currently en route to the location, but it is almost a certainty that, by now, any cargo or drug traffickers are likely long gone, since the arduous journey takes several hours and involves hiking in jungle terrain.
Noting the drug traffickers’ use of spikes to delay officers and the maneuvering of the drug planes over the various clandestine landing strips before a landing location was chosen, the ComPol pointed to what is appearing to be increased sophistication in the operations of the narcos in Belize, who are apparently deploying new, more innovative tactics in their efforts to avoid detection and detention.
“They have become very sophisticated. Obviously we know that these narco-traffickers will do whatever they can to get their cargo from point A to point B, and when these planes come, they don’t have one landing spot; they have several proposed landing spots,” Commissioner Williams said. He added, “We are working with the DEA to see what we can do to address the challenges that we are currently facing in the Toledo District. Graham Creek, Dolores, Crique Sarco—these are the challenging areas for us, and so we are working to see what we can do to enhance our presence and response within that area.” said Williams.
While no cargo was found following either of the landings, the plane used in the operation near Orange Walk has a capacity of almost 2,000 pounds. According to Williams, any cargo that was on that aircraft was likely transported via river by the drug traffickers and smuggled into Mexico via the Botes crossing in Orange Walk.
“I think it took our team like 3 hours to get to the plane after the team experienced the spikes. Three hours would have been quite reasonable, if they have adequate vehicular resources, to move the cargo from point A to point B,” Williams said. He told reporters, however, that police are still operating as if the drugs are still in the area and have teams at the location still conducting searches.
In reference to the seemingly high-level locals who were involved in this drug trafficking operation, Williams said that those persons are from the Carmelita area and that the police have a good idea who those persons are.
“We believe that the narco-traffickers are from within that general Carmelita area. There are a couple of them who operate out of Carmelita; we know who they are, and those are the persons we are looking for, and as a matter of fact, we had gone to their homes yesterday. I have directed the team to make sure we go to their homes yesterday morning to see if they were there – and they were not at home, so that again say something that they could be involved and are still out in the fields dealing with the cargo,” said Williams, who further pointed out that those villagers’ knowledge of the terrain makes them ideal workers to move the drugs.
“The local people are the ones who know our terrain. They know the ins and outs of those areas. The Mexican cartel who would normally come would not be acquainted with our terrain or acquainted with how to maneuver the jungles, so they do rely on our local people who are from the particular area to help them in that regard, so certainly they are not only clearing space but are also involved in the movement of these drugs,” Commissioner Williams said.