Posted: Wednesday, November 20, 2024. 9:04 pm CST.
By Aaron Humes: The first major landing of a suspected drug plane in eleven months took place late Thursday night, according to Police Commissioner Chester Williams – however, police only got word about nine to ten hours later.
By the time they responded, the single-engine plane was found with all its passenger seats stripped out and no cargo, including any suspected drugs, found inside.
On Monday, Commissioner Williams told reporters that one person is being sought for information, while a female police officer has been detained for suspicious activity in connection with the person who helped the aircraft land and is a suspect in a previous case: “…this person is on bail for a previous plane landing and as a condition to his bail he was ordered to report or to sign in to the Belmopan police station every Friday between eight a.m. and five p.m. Surprisingly, the same night the plane landed, he came to sign in at the Belmopan Police Station after twelve midnight. That would be around the same time the plane would be landing. And this female police officer facilitated him to the extent that she took the diary from inside the station and took it outside of the station for him to sign. That for us is an egregious breach. I’m not going to say that she is involved in the plane landing. What are actions in facilitating this individual knowing who he is to have signed in at that particular moment is extremely questionable. And the professional standards branch is looking at that matter and we expect that charges will be levied against her for breach of our internal policy.”
Despite blanketing the area with drones and manpower, it appears the cargo, if any, may have been transported away via the Sibun River.
But how did local trackers and the Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) apparently miss this landing? The Commissioner said he didn’t know: “That’s a matter that we’re looking at. JIOC would be in a better position to explain why they were unable to provide to us any tracking on that particular night in question, as you would know, we’re not the ones who work or manage JIOC. We would normally be fed with information coming out of JIOC as released to the illicit tracking. And then once we get [that] information, then we would then activate our operational teams. to go into different areas that we would anticipate the plane may likely land. But in this case, that did not occur.”
It was directed that the plane be destroyed instead of being auctioned because previous results have seen the planes bought and ultimately reused by the traffickers.
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The post Franks Eddy suspected drug plane burned – but why didn’t police respond sooner? appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
Posted: Wednesday, November 20, 2024. 9:04 pm CST. By Aaron Humes: The first major landing of a suspected drug plane in eleven months took place late
The post Franks Eddy suspected drug plane burned – but why didn’t police respond sooner? appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
