Police in Dangriga are investigating a gruesome murder after a dismembered body was discovered inside a barrel near a popular resort. The victim has been identified as Manuel Fernandez, who was allegedly killed following a violent altercation with Loren Vanegas at a local meat shop. Vanegas, now in custody, is suspected of stabbing Fernandez to death. The Regional Commander of the Eastern Division, ACP Hilberto Romero, shared more details.
“On Sunday, the police responded to a report that a body had been found inside a plastic barrel in front of the Pelican Beach resort in Dangriga. The scene was processed. The person was removed from the barrel, and he was identified as Manuel Fernandez. The investigation revealed that Manuel Fernandez and Loren Vanegas were in a fight at the meat shop, and Vanegas inflicted the Stab wounds on Manuel Fernandez, causing his fatal injuries. Loren Vanegas is now in custody, pending charges.”
Loren Vanegas
Reporter
“You say he was stabbed; was his body also chopped up?”
A.C.P. Hilberto Romero
“I will not go into any details. All I will say is that the body had stab wounds. They had an argument at the meat shop, then they had a confrontation, and then Vanegas caused injuries to Fernandez. They are not related. Fernandez went to the meat shop on Friday.”
The body of a middle-aged man was found on the banks of the Mopan River near the Belize western border over the weekend. The man has been identified as fifty-three-year-old Nery Cardona. Cardona left home on October 16th wearing clothing that matched the description of what was found on the body. Police visited the area along the riverbank where a footpath was created and is believed to be used by individuals who traverse across the border illegally. There they found Cardona’s badly decomposed body washed up. There were no visible signs of injuries, and authorities do not suspect foul play. The body is now at a morgue, pending a postmortem examination.
Over the weekend, a thirty-nine-year-old construction worker was hospitalised following a shooting in Ladyville. Lenny Bengeuche sustained two gunshot wounds and was rushed to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for treatment. Bengeuche was reportedly attacked by two men dressed in dark clothing. The men opened fire at him before fleeing the scene on foot. Here’s A.C.P. Hilberto Romero with more on this.
“He reported he was walking on Egbert Quilter Avenue in Ladyville when someone came out of a picado road and fired shots toward his direction. He was hit and taken to the K.H.M.K. for treatment. He was treated and has since been released. We have no suspects at this time for this shooting. We do not have a motive at this time. We have officers on the ground. There are no suspects at this time.”
Reporter,
“Is the person, the victim, known to the police in any way?”
A.C.P. Hilberto Romero,
“No, he’s not.”
Reporter,
“And he didn’t say that somebody might have been after him?”
A.C.P. Hilberto Romero
“No, he said he just was walking on the street going to the store when the person came out and fired the shots.”
Police made a huge drug bust on Saturday. Twenty-three pounds of cocaine were seized after police in Hattieville village intercepted a Chevy Impala travelling from the Cayo District. The driver, identified as Dominique Young, a car dealer of Vista del Mar, has been arrested for possession of ten parcels of suspected cocaine. Assistant Commissioner of Police Hilberto Romero told us more.
“The nineteenth day of October twenty-twenty-four, our police conducted an operation in Hattieville village, where a Chevy Impala vehicle was stopped and searched. Police found ten parcels of suspected cocaine. The car was impounded and the driver taken into custody. He was identified as Dominique Young, a car dealer of Vista del Mar village. He has since been arrested for possession of controlled drugs with intentions to supply twenty-three point-three pounds of suspected cocaine. We got intelligence, and he was intercepted in Hattiville coming from the Cayo District.”
Reporter
“Is the police currently engaged in a special operation?”
Dominique Young
A.C.P. Hilberto Romero
“There are several operations ongoing; searches have been conducted countrywide.”
Reporter
“Is it an increase in cocaine being found recently?”
A.C.P. Hilberto Romero
“Yes, we have seen an increase in cocaine being found.”
On Friday, the Belize Police Association defended the late Police Constable Santiago Ciau Junior. As we have been reporting, Ciau Junior, who retired in March 2023 due to avascular necrosis from a workplace injury, struggled to secure invalidity benefits and faced repeated denials by the Social Security Board. The S.S.B. stated that Ciau received the maximum entitlement of two hundred and thirty-four days of sickness benefits from April to December 2021, during which he also received his full salary. After exhausting these benefits, he was denied further payments from February 2022 to April 2023 for exceeding the limit. According to the association, Ciau, who served for over seventeen years, was entitled to those benefits. The association called for an end to “further cowardly attacks,” against Ciau. During the House Sitting on Friday, Opposition Leader Moses “Shyne” Barrow spoke on this matter on the adjournment.
Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“Santi contributed monies towards social security for over seventeen years, madam speaker, without having a choice. His money is contributed towards the 87 million that the SSB boasts about having. I concur that we always hear that the SSB needs to spend the money. They have a $100 million problem that they need to get rid of the money. So you would presume that logic and compassion would guide their actions in making sure that all Belizeans that are paying towards their social security retirement funds and benefits would get that when they’re most in need. PC Santi’s money surely contributed towards the millions that have been given out as unsecured loans at social security and remain unrecovered and unpaid. Right now we’re getting ready to pay $30 million for sunshine debt. So rather than deflect, the SSB should embrace and work towards earning the trust of the insurers. They are obligated to assist, Madam Speaker. It is the insurer’s money. As I always say, not the government’s money, not SSB’s money, Madam Speaker. Rather than casting blame, SSB should accept its shortcomings and move to eliminate its antiquated protocols from yesteryears and strive to become a more efficient organisation that will benefit the people that are paying their contributory funds”
This morning, a police mobile unit was involved in an accident on the Phillip Goldson Highway. According to A.C.P. Hilberto Romero, the driver lost control of the vehicle. Romero says the officer sustained minor injuries and is currently receiving treatment at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
“This morning the police mobile attached to Mahogany Heights was involved in an accident. The driver reported that he was driving between miles twenty-four and twenty-five on the Phillip Goldstone Highway when he lost control of the vehicle, causing the vehicle to flip. The officer was taken to the KHMH for treatment. He is presently there. An investigation is being carried out. Minor injuries he received. The damage is to the front portion, the top of the vehicle.”
Twenty-six-year-old Kadrian Travis Wade, a farmer from Lucky Strike Village, has been charged with the murder of forty-six-year-old Glenford Davis. Davis, a farmer from Rockstone Pond Village, was reported missing in mid-March, 2024, after being last seen in late December 2023. Police discovered his skeletal remains two days after he was missing, about seventy-five yards off a feeder road in the Rockstone Pond area, along with a pair of rubber boots, a bush hat, and a backpack.
Goodnight and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday. I am Paul Lopez. We begin tonight’s coverage with a look at the Inter-Office Basketball League’s semi-finals that took place on Friday night inside the Belize City Civic Center. The first match saw team Police face off against Belize Port Authority in their best-of-three series. Team Police is in the black and whole jersey. Airport Authority is wearing black and red.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Gilbert Belisle on the inside with the first points for team Police. Airport Authority’s Shakeem Valerio at the free throw line after being fouled during a shot attempt. He banked the first free throw and missed the second. Six minutes in, Police has four points and Airport Authority has one point. Ball to Linton Broaster at the three-point line and those shot counts. Broaster again, this time with the quick release, puts up a second three-point shot. The ball found Broaster once more in the first quarter and he did not disappoint, with a buzzer beater three-point shot to end the first quarter with eighteen points for team police. Airport Authority finished the first quarter with three points. Team Police secured an additional fourteen points in the second quarter, primarily led by Sheldon Williams, while Airport Authority added twelve points to their score. So, the score was thirty-two to fifteen at the end of the first half. Airport Authority really struggled to find their shots in this game. They only scored three three-point shots in this one, compared to seven overall three-point shots made by team Police. In the end, it was a dominant game for team Police. They finished with sixty-seven points to their opponent’s forty-eight points.
The second game of the night saw Tuff E Nuff take on the Belize City Council. Tuff E Nuff was in the black while the Belize City Council wore their blue jerseys. Jamal Kelly find Orland Ferguson open. He goes baseline and puts up the first two points for Tuff E Nuff. Jamal Kelly from the three-point line with a big three, taking his team to nine points and forcing their opponents to call a timeout. The game is at nine points to zero, in third minute.
City Council’s captain, Auburn Rivero finally able to put his team on the score board. Shortly after, Keon Rowland deflated their momentum with this three-point shot off the throw-in. Tuff E Nuff Captain Douglas Valley inflicting further punishment with this made three-point shot. The game is now at sixteen points to two. Earl “Bolo” Johnson finally getting something up for the Belize City Council to give his team four points. The first quarter ended with twenty-nine points for Tuff E Nuff and eleven for the Belize City Council. And, despite their best efforts, the Belize City Council wasn’t able to tighten the gap. Players like Ferguson, Valley and Tyrell Griffith proved too much for the Belize City Council. Leading scorers for that team were Johnson, Kevin Hamilton and Cordell Gonzalez. Ultimately, Tuff E Nuff won game one with eighty points to the Council’s fifty-five points. That’s a twenty-five-point win.
Belize’s Under-Twenty-One Male National Volleyball Team returned from Panama over the weekend with a bronze medal after competing in the Central American Under-Twenty-One Male Volleyball Championship. It is the first medal for the under-twenty-one national team in a regional tournament. Belize also walked away from several individual awards. Eliazar Mejia took the Best Hitter Award. Ingram Kaelen brought home the Best Opposite and the Top Scorer Awards. We say congratulations to the men’s national volleyball team for their stellar performance.
And now back to some basketball action. The Williams Dawson Sprite Basketball Tournament is now heading to the finals after its semi-final’s knockout matches on Sunday at the Yabra Greens basketball court. In the first match of the day, the defending champions Hard Rock Boys faced off against Hattieville Underdogs, with their eyes set on a three-peat. Early points for Hattieville from Devon Defour Zahir Harris putting up an additional two points for Hattieville.Gregory Buckley, Hattieville’s big man, gets it in. Looking for an opportunity to break Hattieville’s momentum, Earl “Bolo” Johnson gets a bucket. Herman Ramos under the rim, caught the defense sleeping, gets the easy layup.Jason Vasquez with the beautiful put back for the defending champions. On the other hand, Brand Rogers responded with a three-point shot over Johnson. The first quarter ended at eleven points apiece. But the Hard Rock Boys broke away in the second quarter, scoring seven points more than their opponents.
They finished the first half with twenty-four points to their opponent’s seventeen. Fatigue began setting in the second half. It ended up being a low-scoring half. Hard Rock Boys put up a total of thirteen additional points. Their opponents scored twelve points in the second half. In the end, Hard Rock Boys won the game with thirty-seven points to Hattieville Underdog’s twenty-nine points. The defending champions have secured another trip to the finals to play for all the marbles. Their opponents in the final match will be the Orange Court Generals led by Jayron Baptist and Francis Arana. They defeated Dan 1 with a final score of forty-three to thirty-four points.
Well folks, that is all we have for you in this coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.
A three-year-old Palestinian boy tragically lost his life in Khan Younis on Saturday when an aid package, dropped from an aircraft, struck the displacement area where his family had sought refuge. His grandfather, Sami Ayyad, recounted the incident, explaining that as the family ate breakfast, pallets of aid plummeted towards them. Despite efforts to take cover inside their makeshift tents, the falling package instantly killed the young boy, Sami. Other family members, including his aunt and cousin, were injured in the ordeal.
Various countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, and the UAE, have airdropped aid into Gaza in recent months. The UAE reportedly dropped 81 food packages into Khan Younis on Saturday, with over 10,000 packages airdropped in total. However, humanitarian agencies have criticised such airdrops as inefficient, with many urging Israel to lift restrictions on land crossings to allow more direct aid to reach Palestinians.
The aid distribution comes amidst a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with more than 1.84 million Palestinians facing acute food insecurity. Human rights agencies have condemned the restrictions on land-based aid, with some accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Police in Dangriga have launched a murder investigation after a dismembered body was discovered in a barrel near a resort, reportedly dumped into the sea.
The victim has been identified as 32-year-old Manuel Fernandez Jr.
Authorities suspect the dismemberment took place at a local meat shop, which they searched as part of the investigation. A local butcher has been detained in connection with the case. According to reports, an argument between Fernandez and another man over the ownership of the business escalated into a fatal confrontation, during which Fernandez was stabbed.
The incident unfolded on Sunday morning.
It is believed that the suspect tampered with nearby surveillance footage by stealing the memory card from a fruit shop’s camera. When police arrived at the business, they found the suspect behaving suspiciously and cleaning the premises, leading to his detention.
