Proprietor of Double Zero is Busted for Drug Trafficking

On Monday afternoon, law enforcement officers swooped down on an establishment on Western Avenue for a joint operation. The business, Double Zero, is owned by forty-seven-year-old Joshua Ashburn. During the raid, twenty-year-old Keenan O’Connor and thirty-year-old Mario Fernandez, both from Belize City, were also present. A thorough search turned up drugs and firearms, including a bucket of cannabis found in a Dodge Ram pickup. They also found three large transparent bags of cannabis and a nine-millimeter Glock pistol. In the bedroom, officers discovered several international passports. Ashburn, O’Connor, and Fernandez were taken to the Raccoon Street Police Station and charged with various offenses.

Earlier this morning, the businessman was brought to court alone but was taken back to the Police Station for further questioning. It wasn’t until two P.M. that the trio was escorted back to the Belize City Magistrate’s Court to face four criminal charges. They appeared before a Senior Magistrate, where Joshua Moses Ashburn attempted to plead guilty to possession of the two separate amounts of weed found at the property but not guilty to possession with intent to supply. His plea for the lesser charge was rejected, and all three men were remanded to the Belize Central Prison until January twentieth, 2025.