Reports emerging from San Pedro Town are that 46-year-old Matthew Moses was shot and killed. The incident took place earlier this afternoon near the popular Secret Beach. Witnesses say that the shooting was a result of an altercation between Moses and a property owner.
In April 2021, Moses was stabbed, shot, and left for dead. He was sleeping in a hammock when he was attacked and shot by two men.
The Belize Police Department discovered 474 grammes of suspected cocaine on a boat owned by Minister Andre Perez in San Pedro on Friday. According to a statement from the Department, Perez stated the boat had been docked for repairs and unused for over six months. Preliminary investigations suggest the drugs were placed without Perez’s knowledge, and he is cooperating fully with authorities.
News Five caught up with Minister Perez today at the People’s United Party National Party Council meeting in Belize City. Minister Perez denied a request for an interview. But reporters pressed him as he walked away. When asked if he knows the drug peddlers, he said, “No idea.” Minister Perez added, “I have cooperated with police. No comments. I have; there is nothing to worry about.” When asked if he thinks anyone is trying to set him up, Minister Perez said, “Probably.”
Meanwhile, when asked about it, Prime Minister John Briceño said, “I don’t think it’s someone who’s trying to set up. I think someone was smart because Andre has not been using his boat. He’s just docked there for more than six months. He has not used the boat. If they put anything there, the police will not think about going to search his boat. But when somebody tipped off the police and the police were, they didn’t care if it was Honourable Andre Perez’s boat. They went to check, and they found the drugs. But it has been abundantly clear that Andre had not been using his boat.”
The Belize Police Department has confirmed that 474 grammes of suspected cocaine were found on a docked boat belonging to Cabinet Minister Andre Perez. The discovery was made on Friday when police were alerted by concerned residents in the Back-a-Town area of San Pedro Town about known drug peddlers frequenting a local boat yard.
According to the Department, Minister Perez explained that the boat had been docked for repairs and unused for over six months. The boatyard owner corroborated Perez’s statement, noting the minister has been paying a monthly docking fee of $250 BZD.
Initial investigations suggest the drugs were placed on the boat without Minister Perez’s knowledge. He is fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
A construction worker fell to his death on Thursday morning on Ambergris Caye. Police reports are that the incident happened at Clearwater Belize, a property located two and a half miles north of San Pedro. The victim, forty-five-year-old Abisur Loza, a resident of Patchakan Village, Corozal, was working on the fourth floor of a six-storey building when he fell to the ground sometime around seven-forty a.m. Loza was one of several others who were working at the site. Loza was reportedly on the edge of the fourth floor of the building, trying to push a corrugated drainage pipe that was hanging. He lost his footing and plummeted to his death. His co-workers reportedly heard a thud and saw him lying face up on the ground, bleeding from the face and head. By the time the ambulance arrived a few minutes later, Loza had already died. The father had reportedly gone to Ambergris Caye a few weeks ago to seek employment to sustain his family back home.
A San Pedro police officer has been arrested and charged with theft after a local bartender reported that casino chips and cash went missing following his detention earlier this month.
Kevin Salazar, a 28-year-old bartender from the San Pedrito area in San Pedro Town, reported that on the morning of Tuesday, September 10, 2024, he was socialising at the Palm Casino when a female police officer approached him, conducted a search, and found him in possession of controlled drugs. Salazar was detained and escorted to the San Pedro Police Station.
Upon arrival at the station, Salazar was asked to hand over his personal belongings to be logged. He surrendered two green casino chips worth $50 each, 22 red casino chips valued at $10 each, $15 in cash, a cellphone, a watch, and a silver chain. He signed the station diary confirming these items.
The next day, on Wednesday, September 11, Salazar was officially arrested and charged with “Possession of Controlled Drugs.” After pleading guilty at the San Pedro Magistrate Court, he was fined. When he returned to the police station to collect his belongings, Salazar discovered that the casino chips valued at $320 and the $15 in cash were missing. The diarist allegedly told Salazar that he had only signed for his other items and not the casino chips or money.
Salazar immediately filed a report about the missing items. The police launched an internal investigation, reviewing video footage and taking a statement from the bartender.
As a result, 28-year-old police officer Keir Roebin David Morey, who resides on Jewfish Street in San Pedro Town, was detained and informed of the complaint against him. After being cautioned and advised of his constitutional rights, Morey was placed under investigation.
On Tuesday, September 17, Morey was formally arrested and charged with theft in connection to the missing casino chips and cash.
Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has announced the successful commissioning and load testing of the San Pedro Gas Turbine (San Pedro GT) on September 5, achieving its rated capacity of 21 MW. BEL also shared that the turbine is currently unable to supply power to the grid due to a transformer failure that occurred early on September 7.
In a press release, BEL said that the San Pedro GT was expected to be fully operational by early June. During the commissioning process, one of the three necessary transformers failed. BEL said that it acted swiftly to secure a replacement transformer, but the shipment was delayed by Hurricane Beryl’s impact on shipping routes. The replacement transformer finally arrived in the first week of August.
The replacement transformer failed shortly after installation. BEL, along with the installation contractor, is now conducting a thorough assessment to determine the cause of this failure.
BEL says that a short-term solution is already in the works. According to BEL, a new replacement transformer expected to be installed before the end of the year is being procured. In the interim, BEL says it will monitor power demand on San Pedro and implement a contingency plan to protect the single submarine cable that interconnects the island.
In late June, San Pedro welcomed its own office for the Department of Environment. There, the D.O.E conducts several duties, such as managing natural resources, preserving and protecting the environment, and controlling pollution. Today, Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai provided an update on the duties of the station and he told us that it has been a great success.
Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer, D.O.E.
“There are several issues that we have dealt with. So again, the San Pedro substation is our first attempt at decentralization. It is critically important to have an office in San Pedro because it is the fastest developing. And we’ve been there, we’ve been there for a couple months now, and over that period, we have definitely dealt with some serious issues, maybe four or five of them. We currently have one in the pipeline. Have people been persecuted, or are you in the works to persecute them? Yes, we’re in the process of persecuting a few, yeah, a few persons. We also are from, we, and enforcement and persecution is just one aspect of what we’re doing on the island. We have also been providing advice to the Town Council. and the Caye Caulker Village Function in terms of some of the development plans, et cetera. And we are participating in some sensitization training and et cetera, sharing of information in relation to the environment. So it’s much more than just a hardcore enforcement compliance monitoring. We’re doing other support activities as well, but yeah, we do have some enforcement related matters in the pipeline.”
The work has begun for the construction of the San Pedro and Caye Caulker General Hospital. For years, residents of the islands were airlifted to the mainland to receive intensive medical treatment, but they will soon be able to do so on the island. The thirty-three-million-dollar project is being funded by the Republic of China, Taiwan. We spoke with Area Representative and Minister of Disaster Risk Management, Andre Perez for an update.
Andre Perez, Minister of Disaster Risk Management
“I believe of course the work has started; the piles are being driven in. And I think they are doing an average of fifteen piles per day, and a total of one hundred and ninety eight piles will be driven. So everything is in set, the construction has started, and everything is on pace right now that we’re setting up. We’re close crossing our fingers that it’s going to last thirty-six months. So yes, it’s ongoing, and every now and again we do an inspection. And of course, the contractor is keeping the abreast, so we’re very excited about that one.”
The Belize International Music and Food Festival had its hiccups, but it was a significant boost for business in San Pedro. While the official figures are yet to be released, the preliminary report is that the event provided economic stimulus to the town during the tourism off season. News Five’s Marion Ali spoke with the Chairman of the Belize Tourism Industry Association’s San Pedro Chapter, who said the event benefited everyone economically. Here’s that report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The Belize International Music and Food Festival has been described as hugely successful from an economic standpoint. The event is said to be on par with San Pedro Lobster Fest. Chairman of San Pedro’s BTIA, Nicholas Scavone tells News Five that the population literally doubled over the weekend.
Nicholas Scavone, Chairperson, B.T.I.A., San Pedro Branch
“I had heard that it was fifteen thousand people attend the music fest. The population – the resting population of the entire town of San Pedro, right? That was there, so you had our fifteen thousand plus fifteen thousand that came in. Even though it was raining, people were out there in the rain dancing. There was food, there was music. All the restaurants were full, the nightclubs were full, the town was full; the suppliers and the grocery stores had just gotten their supplies that week, and already you could see the huge dent that the local uptick in tourism has put on that. So it’s really extended our season right through up to the end of July. It was a tremendous success and a tremendous economic push for our island.”
Preliminary reports are that hotel occupancy in San Pedro was significantly higher for people in that industry. Scavone says the festival, along with other major events are the reasons for the increase.
“We had a lot of people from the mainland, a lot of local people came in and enjoyed the time, taking advantage of the lower rates, and we did have quite a number of tourists that came down. Whether they came down specifically for the music fest or not, I cannot be sure but July, in general, saw a good uptick for I know we had some for lobster fest. We know there’s a traditional amount of people that come down for the lobster fest. We did have people that came over in some quantity for the fishing tournament that we have here and I can only think that the music fest added to that attraction, which kept them here, perhaps, but occupancies in the hotels were significantly higher than we normally would expect for this time in July.”
According to Scavone, the infusion of economic activity in San Pedro during the off-season is welcoming because it created good business for everyone who rely on tourism.
“A lot of it goes into the pockets of the hoteliers, the restauranteurs, the taxi drivers the people who sell the crafts, the bars Bowen and Bowen for selling their products, the wholesalers, the distributors, the grocery stores, because people come down and everybody stops off at the various grocery stores in there filling up. The benefits from that, just all-around vendors, all that money goes into their pockets. And of course the flow through from that is the increased level of GST we get, the fact that the B.T.B. gets more hotel tax coming in on the 9 percent of the uptick in occupancy.”
Estimates of revenues to the Belize Tourism Board have not yet been released. Marion Ali for News Five.
Scavone said that if there was one downside to the festival it was the chaos that the overcrowding caused to the traffic in San Pedro. The island town, known for already congested streets during peak time, was overwhelmed this weekend. Scavone said that there are other back streets that have recently been paved that helped in the flow of traffic, but the closure of others impeded the flow in those main areas.
Nichloas Scavone, Chair, B.T.I.A., San Pedro Branch
“Our roads are not built for the level and the quantity of tourists and golf carts that we get traditionally. Traffic is bad during season on any given day. It was particularly bad because they started closing off roads; they close off usually for Lobster Fest, they’ll close off just the one section by Sacachispas Park. But for this, they closed off the entire street, which really puts a crimp in the ability for carts to get around. Yes, congestion was a real problem; a lot of people, a lot of congestion, a lot of delays, a lot of just – I was reading he was parked by Minnelli’s Ice Cream and it took him half an hour to get a break in the traffic long enough for him to be able to back out of his parking spot. One of my employees here, our concierge, was going downtown and to get one block but for twenty minutes going through town. It was horrendous. But on the plus side, better to have a lot of people and have a little inconvenience than not to have any people and have free-flowing traffic. And we as the town has had a process of paving a lot of the back streets, so there are now alternative areas, alternative ways to get downtown and to bypass some of the main bottlenecks that we have so that has been a help.”
