Photo: Belize registered plane destroyed in Venezuela

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Jan. 29, 2024

On Thursday of last week, January 25, the Venezuelan media reported that a suspected narco plane that carried a Belize registration number had been shot down.

The aircraft, identified as a twin-engine Gulfstream 200 or G-2 aircraft with registration numbers V3-GRS, was detected by Venezuelan radar entering the country’s airspace without authorization, and it was ultimately shot down in Zulia, Venezuela, by the country’s military which suspected that it was connected to drug trafficking operations.

As some readers might remember, this is the same aircraft that was intercepted in Belize by a local law enforcement team (including Belize Defence Force soldiers) off the Coastal Highway and was found to be carrying 70 bales of cocaine onboard.

So, how did it get to Venezuela? Amandala has confirmed with Nigel Carter, Chief Operations Officer at the Belize Civil Aviation Authority, that the plane had been confiscated and sold by the Government of Belize to an unknown buyer in Cozumel, Mexico.

“The Government of Belize, in 2021, if I’m not mistaken, auctioned off the aircraft, and at that point, the aircraft was bought and repaired over time. Starting last year, they decided to export the aircraft out of Belize. You would compare it to somebody buying a car, fixing it up, and trying to sell it when it’s repaired. It’s a similar activity; it’s a legal activity,” he said.

Carter further went on to mention, “At some point in time, it was auctioned off in accordance to the laws of Belize, and the aircraft was purchased and eventually exported out of the country, which is what occurred. The aircraft, when it left Belize, left legally, with all of its documents in order, because it met all the requirements of the law, and it went to Cozumel. After that, the certificate that we issued expired, and we have no responsibility over the aircraft anymore, because it is not registered to us then.”

Since the registration documents had already expired, there was no authorization for that aircraft to be in the air, said Carter.

Reports suggest that the aircraft first made landfall on Mexican soil on January 14, after leaving from Belize with an American pilot, Mexican co-pilot, and no passengers. It was held overnight in Mexico and departed to Granada, Spain, the following day, and returned to the region 10 days later, January 24, and was destroyed in Venezuela a few hours later.

When the plane was inspected by customs officials in Mexico, it was confirmed that the aircraft indeed had the proper documentation, which expired on January 20, 2024.