Mexican Cigarette Bust Puts Corozal Free Zone Under Scrutiny

A cigarette bust in Mexico involving products linked to the Corozal Free Zone has renewed concerns about how the zone’s operations are monitored. Prime Minister John Briceño says authorities have closed an entrance gate at the back of the zone and have shown US officials the measures being taken to tighten security. He insists that cigarettes exported from the Free Zone leave Belize legally, but how those products are handled once they reach other countries is outside Belize’s control.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“As far as I know, we’ve closed that extra gate that they had, you know, through the back. The Americans has visited the Free Zone. We have shown them what we’re doing with the operations, and we’re doing as best as we can. If we export cigarettes from the Free Zone, it is exported legally. Now, what happens in Mexico, we have no control over that. So that’s a matter that you need to ask the Mexicans.”

 

Reporter

“Are the Americans bringing heat on Belize for the zone activities, and how intense is that heat now?”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“They have never come to me and asked me that we have to close the zone. There have been concerns, obviously, earlier on that we have to ensure that we don’t allow the cartels to come into Belize, which is something I’ve been saying from the beginning, that we have to do everything possible to keep them out of Belize. And I think we’ve been fairly successful in that, and short of that, we continue to work with the Americans. We continue to, and we’ve always been telling them we need help. We need help with intelligence. We need the assets to be able to move from point A to point B very quickly, to be able to stave off these people who are trying to come into Belize.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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