Caught fleeing scene: customs and police officers, including GG's driver

As we told you earlier, five persons have been arrested for Saturday's drug bust. After the beechcraft was dusted for fingerprints by the BDF and police, a white van was intercepted at the San Juan Bus Stop near the Bladen Community. Corporal Renel Grant attached to Belize City Traffic Branch was found behind the wheels. Corporal Nelson Middleton assigned as driver to the Governor General was in the van along with Sergeants Lawrence Humes and Jacinto Jacinto Roches, originally from Punta Gorda and now stationed at the Belmopan police station. The fifth person was Harold Usher, a Customs Department boatman stationed in Corozal Town who is also a former anti-drug unit officer. The men were taken to court in Punta Gorda this morning and News Five Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The Punta Gorda Town Police Station was this morning teeming with activity as the usually quiet local headquarters was fortified by members of the Anti-Drug Unit and the Belize Defense Force. Outside a swarm of heavily armed officers secured the perimeter while the families of four of their own were inside visiting the men in custody. Among them was forty-two year old police sergeant Jacinto Roches, seen here greeting his wife and friends. He, like the rest of his colleagues, is awaiting a single charge of possessing unlicensed ammunition; a live round which was allegedly found in the vehicle they were intercepted in. That account has been disputed by all four officers who argue that during the search of a white van they were traveling in the officers sweeping it came up empty-handed and that the bullet was only discovered after the men were taken into custody.

Police however, are hoping that the 'holding charge', as it is referred to, will lead them to information on the contents and occupants of this aircraft which landed on the Southern Highway near Bladden Village in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Inside the twin engine Beech Craft was illegal cargo in the form of two point six tons of pure cocaine. While the men were not caught in the immediate vicinity of the aircraft Independence Police, acting on information received, were able to nab them discovering inside the vehicle a laundry list of fatigue and other related equipment including.

In the parking lot of the police station were two vehicles believed to be used either in the offloading of the eighty bails of cocaine or the transportation of its pilot and passenger. These two vehicles are said to be part of a small convoy of which the white van and another vehicle remain impounded in Independence Village. Punta Gorda police remained tightlipped about the ongoing investigation as it is formally in the hands of the Belmopan formation. According to a reliable source the department is only facilitating the work being done by their counterparts before escorting them out of town.

The equipment found inside the white van included anti-drug gear, several wet clothing items, two car size batteries, and a licensed nine millimeter belonging to Harold Usher. In another search in the Hicatee Area, police found one GPS Garmin brand, a Satellite phone, four Hand Held radios, two flashlights, one Colt point two-two-three semi-automatic rifle and ammo and camouflage jackets.

Channel 5