5 read additional charge for Southern Hwy drug plane The 20 heavily armed police officers, BDF soldiers and two police mobile units that were used at the Magistrate's Court to ensure the safety of six people reportedly involved in the landing of a drug plane on the Southern Highway, were there apparently on another mission as well - to protect the accused officers from the cameras of reporters covering the story.
Five police officers and a boatman for the Customs Department who were suspected of facilitating the landing of the drug plane made an appearance before Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie.
Both in entering the courtroom and in exiting the court to where their police transport was, the accused officers were shielded from the media. In fact, police officers alerted the accused officers whenever they noticed a reporter trying to take their pictures, so that they could hide their faces.
The men were shackled with leg and wrist cuffs, and were swiftly moved into the courtroom, but no additional charges were added to their charge sheets in the morning.
The prosecutor at that point asked Chief Magistrate McKenzie for an adjournment date because there was currently no case file available for any further action, because the investigation is still ongoing.
Four of the five police officers detained and one customs officer had already been charged for possession of ammunition, while other charges were being prepared pending investigation.
The men are Corporal Renel Grant, 33, who is the Governor General's former driver, along with the GG's current driver, Corporal Nelson Middleton, 39; Sergeant Lawrence Humes, 38; Sergeant Jacinto Roches, 42, who is attached to the Internal Affairs Desk in Belmopan; and Harold Usher, 36, a boatman at Customs Department.
Another police officer of interest was Corporal Vidal Cahun, who has been charged for an unrelated firearm and ammunition charge.
Attorney Dickey Bradley told Amandala, this morning that he is currently representing all 6 men. He said that he was under the impression that his clients were all brought to court so that the additional charges related to drug trafficking offenses could be added to the list of charges they already face, but this was not the case, and he said that there had been no clear indication if any additional charges would be added.
But there would be further developments. All the six men went back to court this evening, but only five of them - Roches, Grant, Middleton, Humes, and Usher - were each read an additional charge, which was abetment to commit a crime, to wit, the importation of a controlled drug
The charges detailed that on November 13, 2010, the five men all assisted with the landing of an aircraft, loaded with 2,921.04 kilograms of cocaine, in the area between Mile 56 and 57 on the Southern Highway.
Bradley was not present at court when the men were brought back in the afternoon, and as a result, the men asked Chief Magistrate McKenzie for a little time to contact him. Unfortunately, he remained unavailable when the men were finally read their charges.
No plea was taken from the men and no bail was granted. They have all been remanded until February 9, 2011.
As we reported in a previous issue of the Amandala, they were intercepted in a van near the San Juan bus stop - that is, 21 miles from where the plane landed. The estimated value of the cocaine associated with this plane was $131 million Belize dollars.
A court order was given for the destruction of the entire bust, which was conducted at a BSI facility in the Orange Walk District on November 22, 2010.
Amandala