U.S. Embassy Commends Belize on Weekend’s Drug Bust

The fourteen-million-dollar drug bust of a plane that came from Venezuela was achieved through cooperation from security agencies in the region.  Today, the U.S. Embassy in Belize is commending Belize’s security forces for the cocaine bust. The U.S. Embassy says that the bust shows the important work Belize is doing to combat the transshipment of illegal drugs.  The embassy is urging the Government of Belize to intensify these efforts and prosecute offenders.  This is one of the recommendations published in the U.S. Department of State’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (Volume One) on March 2018. The report states that Belize is susceptible to the transshipment of illegal drugs coming from South America.  According to the report, drug trafficking organizations predominately use maritime and air routes through Belize. Maritime crafts avoid law enforcement detection by moving at night and using the hundreds of cayes to conceal their movement. The report finds that narco-traffickers use air routes to smuggle illicit drugs and drug traffickers use low-trafficked roads and undetectable airstrips on which planes can quickly land and refuel to continue their flight to North America.