BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Law enforcement authorities are reporting an increase in the number of suspected drug planes flying out of South America.
They say that some of those flights have entered Belizean airspace, with some going as far as the Turks and Caicos Islands. Last Friday, an aircraft departed from South America and crossed over into Belize within a few hours before disappearing from the radar altogether.
The authorities said they believed that the plane subsequently entered Guatemala. However, in an aerial survey undertaken on Sunday, the aircraft remnants were discovered in Corazon Creek.
Police Commissioner Chester Williams told a news conference that “over the past few weeks, we’re seeing an increase in air traffic activities within the region, not only for Belize but there was one that went even as far as Turks and Caicos.
“So Belize, again, being strategically located in Central America, bordering Mexico and Guatemala, does serve as a transit point for drugs to move to the north. And so, over the weekend, on Friday night to be exact, a track came out of South America, and upon entering our airspace in the south, it disappeared off the radar.”
He said while information initially suggested that the plane had landed in Guatemala, “we did not get any information from our Guatemalan counterparts that it landed there.
“And so, just to be sure, the Belize Defence Force (BDF) did a flyover on Sunday, and during the flyover, they observed the burnt remains of a plane in the Corazon Creek area that is located, I think, about four miles from the Belize/Guatemala border.”
Williams told reporters that a team of police and BDF went into the area on foot, “and I must say that the region is vegetated heavily rough terrain, and it took them a couple of hours to get there.
“But when they finally got to the location, they indeed came across the burnt remains of a plane in that particular area. Nothing else of interest was found. Based on what I am briefed by the team that went, it is that the remains that were found there seems to have been recently landed, so we believe that that would have been the plane that fell off the radar on Friday night,” Williams added.
Meanwhile, the police commissioner has confirmed that four police officers who were arrested and charged following the landing of a drug plane on the Southern Highway near Bladen in November 2021 have been dismissed.
“Separate and apart from the accusation against them regarding the Bladen plane landing, there are also several other reports against them. And while yes, some of those matters are still before the court. They have been tried in tribunal in some instances and were acquitted. It is in our humble view that in light of all these allegations that surround these officers, and when you take that and put it alongside the public concern in respect of these officers, how the public sees them, it is not a good view for us.
“ So what I did was write the officers and outline to them the different allegations against them and ask them, in light of these allegations, to show reasons why they should not be dismissed kindly. Again, it’s just ensuring they can be heard,” Williams told reporters.
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