Drug Plane Suspected to be Part of Drug Trafficking Network

Tonight, authorities suspect a drug ring is operating in southern Belize after discovering the remains of a drug plane that was deliberately set on fire after landing on Wednesday night. Earlier today, News Five spoke with BDF Commander Azariel Loria and Coast Guard Commandant Elton Bennett, whose teams assisted the Belize Police Department in securing the area. The plane landed on a makeshift airstrip in a remote part of Toledo near Graham Creek, close to the Guatemalan border. Initially, there were reports that two law enforcement officers were detained in connection with the incident. Today, we learned from Loria that another person from the remote area was also detained. Authorities believe the landing is linked to a suspected drug trafficking network operating in southern Belize. We understand that satellite phones and communication equipment were found at the detainee’s residence. Let’s hear first from Loria, followed by Bennett, on this latest discovery of a drug plane.

 

Brigadier General Azariel Loria, Commander, B.D.F.

“We need to do quite a bit of investigation when it comes to that and get to the bottom of it. I think that there was one major figure that was detained and I don’t know if he has been arrested at this point in time from one of the villages down in the south, which could lead us to more. It’s a drug trafficking network that we’re trying to dismantle in the south. I think that by the detention of this person, I don’t want to share the details and I would prefer for the Commissioner or somebody from the police department to go into those details. But I think we will have the potential to solve and in so doing, dismantle the network down in the south.”

 

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“We form a part of the joint enforcement teams that would deploy whenever an aircraft of interest is declared and that night we were activated and we had several Coast Guard operations that were placed on alert and deployed to different areas in order to intercept any traffickers that will be coming along the coast. So we look after the coastal areas and then the Belize Defense Force and the police department would’ve had enforcement teams well inland. So we were up tracking and trying to place our personnel at the best possible location in order to intercept. I do understand that they discovery the plane in the southern area just off the Sarstoon and that’s in the jungles. It’s very difficult terrain to operate in. I don’t know all the details as yet.”