Tonight, residents of the Toledo district continue to strongly oppose police who conducted several drug raids during the weekend. During their sweep, they detained Eladio Pop, a well-known and well-loved elder cacao farmer from the village of San Pedro, Colombia.

Pop gained national popularity as an icon of traditional Maya cultivation as a cacao farmer. His farm and his passion for cacao plants have been featured in many documentaries, even included in the BTB's marketing collateral.

But, last week, police teams went to Pop's farm looking for drugs and other illegal items, and that's when, according to reliable sources, Pop and his wife were detained on suspicion of marijuana cultivation.

On Saturday, the non-profit organization known as the Colombia River Cooperative sent out a press release complaining bitterly in protest against the raids.

Their statement says, quote, "Our village, a center of traditional Maya marijuana cultivation, was given hope during the current economic crisis by Hon. Musa's legalization bill. In hope that indigenous and traditional small independent farmers would finally be able to participate in the marijuana trade, farmers from our village met and applied for a cooperative license. This week, nearly all of these farmers have been brutally harassed by the police, and currently, a traditional and well-respected couple in their 60s, well-known chocolate farmers who are active in church and cultural events, are in jail in Punta Gorda." End quote.

This morning, we got a chance to speak via telephone with the Chairman of the Colombia River Cooperative. Here's what he had to say in defense of Eladio Pop and the other farmers who were the subject of the drug raids:

Marlon Fajardo - Chairman, Colombia River Cooperative
"You see, for the past couple of months, the Columbia River Cooperative was trying to get together some people and some farmers to try and work with the government to get these farmers' licenses. The government basically already promised that they're going to work on the legalization of marijuana. So, we're going to try to work with them. And since then, everything about the referendum went very silent, and nobody knows anything. Now, all of a sudden, like this past week, they had like a bunch of raids. And, you know, Mr. Eladio is a very senior man. He is an old man. He doesn't need all that stress in his life right now. We were trying to work these people, with the government and everybody, and now, we aren't seeing any headway with the referendum or anything pertaining to the legalization of marijuana. Now, farmers are getting attacked. It doesn't matter how much weed they found Mr. Eladio with; the charges that they're probably going to give to Mr. Eladio will nowhere compared to what the marijuana is even worth. Mr. Pop is one of the biggest contributors to tourism in Belize. Mr. Pop has banners with his face all over the country, from the time you get into Belize from the airport, all the way down south. Mr. Pop is a very hard-working old man, and even today, Mr. Pop goes to the farm every single day, very friendly. This man, I don't have anything I can think about that's negative about Mr. Pop. Mr. Pop contributed very big - he even has a documentary about him and his farming."

Daniel Ortiz
"There might be those Belizeans who feel that your organization and other supporters of Mr. Eladio Pop are asking for special treatment when marijuana cultivation is indeed an illegal offense. What do you say to those people who think that whoever it is, if you do wrong, you should face the consequences?"

Marlon Fajardo
"Yes, I do understand that if you do wrong and you break the law, there are consequences to pay, but I'm just saying that if the consequences aren't matching up to the wrong that you did - If you look at the statistics, you have a lot of people who get charged for murder, or who should get charge for murder, robberies, or whatever, and they are walking free. And then you people who are not seeing any daylight, aren't seeing their families, who all they ever do in their entire lives is hold a little bit of marijuana on them, either to sell to provide food for their families, or for their own personal consumption."

Channel 7