Narcos Offload Drug Plane in Record Time

According to Musa, while police and B.D.F. personnel were dispatched to the area within a half hour of its landing, the heavily armed welcoming committee had wasted no time in clearing the contents of the aircraft. The fact that these airplanes continue to make landfall in certain parts of the country raises suspicion of the involvement of Belizean actors in the illicit activity. 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

Kareem Musa

“In terms of the information that we have been getting from the air asset, what it managed to detect was some sixty or so heavily armed individuals offloading.  And so, what we are saying is that basically, we cannot confirm whether those individuals are Belizeans or Mexicans, but again, because it is an air asset, what it was confirming was the presence of these individuals in the area offloading cargo.  And again, we got there, I would say, thirty minutes after the landing, after the suspected or alleged landing. We have to look at all possibilities and all angles.  It has to be a fact that there must be participation from Belizeans at some level.  As you know, in the last instance, in the last plane landing that happened in the Belize River Valley area, we were able to intercept a number of individuals, including police officers and BDF personnel.  And so, there is always the suspicion that we have to make and the assumption that we have to make that there are Belizeans involved in these illicit landings and so I don’t want to point fingers at any particular community to say that they are definitely involved.  Like I said, the information that we gathered last night was from a civilian from that particular community notifying the police that a plane was in the area and where it was suspected to have landed.  So it was based on that assistance from a member of the public that the Belize Police Department knew where to go.  But again, I don’t want to point fingers but like you’re rightly saying, it is highly possible, highly likely that there is involvement from Belizean participants as well.”