Back in March, authorities stumbled upon the charred remains of the aircraft near Graham Creek in Toledo, and it didn’t take long to link it to a suspected drug ring operating in southern Belize. The landing strip? Just a stone’s throw from the Guatemalan border, raising serious questions about cross-border involvement. Today, we spoke with the Minister of Defense and Border Security, Oscar Mira, who gave us an update on the investigation and what’s really happening near the Sarstoon.
Oscar Mira, Minister of Defense & Border Security
“Our intelligence suggests that the Guatemalans were being assisted by those on our side. When we destroyed the amount of coca plants on the Belize side it was done in collaboration with Belizeans as well. It’s something that we are working on. It’s something that we are gathering more information and we have not found any more coca plantations since we destroyed the last one.”
Reporter
“That wasn’t Graham Creek right?”
Oscar Mira
“No Graham Creek is not close to our Sarstoon.”
Reporter
“But did you have residents from Graham Creek who involved in that illegal drug plane?”
Oscar Mira
“So what was happening in the south is we do have a lot of illegal airstrips, that were being used. When you go and you notice that in one day you can clear a whole yard strip for a plane to land two or two or three o’clock in the morning, then indeed the local population is involved, and our intelligence suggest that is what was happening. We have been working, we have been working with the police department. We have been working with the ANU. We have been working with our regional partners. We do have very good network with the Hondurans, the Colombians, the US, Guatemala, Mexicans where we exchange information. And we are also working with our own local intelligence people to ensure that if they are involved, that. And I think you heard about an incident that happened there when the patrol went to Graham Creek. We are looking at it very seriously.”
Reporter
“We have not a recent one.”
Oscar Mira
“No that not too recent. Since then we have not had another landing, but we are also doing a lot of patrols in the area. And soon we’re going to have a forward observation base in the Otoxha Dolores area, That will be a new one so that we can, mitigate and possibly stop all of those landing that are happening.”