Guns and ammunition are stolen from the San Pedro Police Station

Luis Castellanos

Eight guns and more than one hundred rounds of ammunition were stolen between Wednesday night and Friday morning in San Pedro. Usually when that happens it’s time to call in the Police but here’s the thing – the weapons and ammo were stolen from the Police Station. The missing items are the property of K.B.H. Security. The security company leaves its weapons at the Police Station for safe-keeping. Theoretically that’s a sound practice that is encouraged by the department, but theory didn’t hold true in this instance. Today, Commanding Officer Luis Castellanos told News Five that he is reasonably sure it was an inside job, and while it’s a black eye for the Department, they will get to the bottom of it. 

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Via Phone: Supt. Luis Castellanos, O.C., San Pedro Police Formation

“There’s a system here in San Pedro Police Station where the KBH Security leave their firearms here for safe-keeping. They have installed a metal box which measures about two feet and one foot in width. They secure it and they have their own keys. They remain with the keys. All we do is just confirm that they’re bringing in the firearms and they’re secured. This they did on Wednesday the thirtieth of April at about eight pm. They deposited the firearms. This morning at seven a.m. Mr. Daniel Tun, who is a supervisor for the KBH, visited the station to recover the firearms, and he realized that the firearms were missing. As a result of that we cross-checked and we noticed that yes, the eight firearms which are point thirty-eight calibre revolvers and one hundred and one rounds of ammunition was missing.  I’ve launched an investigation. We’re recording statements from the various Policemen, because as you know from Wednesday to now they have several shifts that have changed over, so we’re questioning the Policemen who handed over and so we’re investigating.”

Mike Rudon

“Do you feel that the guns are still on the island, or that they’ve been taken off already?”

Via Phone: Supt. Luis Castellanos

“Well, we’re still investigating, so I wouldn’t be able to answer. It may well have left…you know San Pedro is very porous. You don’t even have to go by regular boat, can take a boat and just leave the island, it’s so porous. You can go through Maskall…you don’t necessarily have to go through Belize City. You can go in an aircraft, so it would be hard for me to comment and to say if the firearms are still here in San Pedro. As a commander when you receive a report like this it is not something that you take lightly. It has cracked the integrity of the Department and you know the ill-repute. In all fairness not everybody would be involved, but the good pay for the bad too. It brings you down as a commander to know that this happened under your watch, and it should never have happened.”

Castellanos says that the culprits, when found, will be charged criminally.