Armed Drug Smugglers Are the Real Threat at Sarstoon F.O.B.

Brigadier General Azariel Loria also noted that the Guatemalan Armed Forces are not their primary concerns. He says greater threats may arise from armed civilians seeking to use the channels as a route to transport illegal drugs.

 

Brigadier General Azariel Loria, Commander, Belize Defense Force

“The concern would be civilians, that they are armed. Make no mistakes, the guys that grow the cocoa plants here conduct illegal shipments of cocaine made here in Temash, coming from Honduras and sometimes Guatemala, they are armed. If there is a shootout, as you put it, we have our actions on and some of it is to see if it can be contained, if we can make arrests and if we can reinforce. We have the police, we have the BDF, we have our standbys, all of that. That will be activated in itself. That is the way we do things; it is action on as part of our SOP.”