A cruise ship passenger who was in the jewel on a one day visit had a brush with the law after he was busted with weed on Tuesday. When he was arraigned this morning, the forty-nine year US national Douglas Magnuson, a trucker of Wisconsin admitted that it was a really stupid and silly thing to do. Magnuson told the court that he is in recovery as an alcoholic and that he does not even smoke but that a buddy asked him to get the local weed. Magistrate Roberto Ordonez imposed a fine of two hundred and fifty dollars which Magnuson paid up. He promptly exited the courtroom and got into a taxi heading to the port to get back on a ship. His impression was that Belize sucks and he is never coming back. Magnuson was searched at the Tourism Village and found with the two point five grams of weed.

Channel 5

Tourist Tried To Swallow Joint At Tourism Village

That caused quite a commotion and a ruckus. We got there shortly after and emotions were running high:..

"PULU" Musa, Tour Guide
"Confirm reports state how they saw the black American lady buying the stick of weed from somebody, I don't know from whom, I didn't see all of that. Jules, by the time the lady got here - it's wrong Jules, for one little stick of weed. Jules, tourism is the number one industry in Belize, this is what put food on our table. It's wrong for the policeman to beat up a woman and manhandle her like that."

Jules Vasquez
"What do you mean by beat up? Maybe they restrained her or something like that."

"PULU" Musa, Tour Guide
"Jules, you know when it comes to the laws, you need a female police officer to deal with another female, a policeman cannot choke another female like that."

Jules Vasquez
"Wait, he choked her for what reason?"

"PULU" Musa, Tour Guide
"Because, it looks like the young lady whom they said have the "ganja" swallowed the weed."

Vendor
"They were asking the lady about some weed, because the lady swollowed the weed. The police grabbed her fling her down on the ground and they flinged her into the blue wall over there. And when they fling her into the wall they choked her and when they choked her it was for her to bring up whatever they thought she had swallowed. And when they finished choking her the continued pulling her clothes pushing and burst her nose, because her nose was bleeding. It's not right because if I go to their country I don't want their police or their government to do me those things, and I am a tourist in their country."

Jules Vasquez
"Wrong is wrong."

Vendor
"Wrong is wrong also, but they didn't have to go through all of that, Mr. Jules, I mean yes, wrong is wrong they should have done that but why would you do that?"

"PULU" Musa, Tour Guide
"Which-in what the young lady had, it's wrong Jules, but I didn't see any drugs Jules. All I saw, they were choking the woman and handling her like a man. They were looking to put the woman to sleep, she was bleeding from here. I call it police brutality!"

The female tourist was whisked away to the police - but she was not taken to court. Another one was, though. 26-year-old Matthew Butle who was busted with 1.9 grams of weed was arraigned in Court #5 on a single charge of possession of a controlled drugs.

Matthew was unrepresented but pleaded guilty to the offense. The Magistrate fined him $300 plus a $5.00 cost of court of which he had to pay forthwith in default 3 months.

Matthew was unable to pay the fine immediately and at 12:00 noon this afternoon, he was escorted to the Queen Street Police Station where arrangements were being made for him to visit a local bank in order to withdraw the cash to pay his fine. He did that between 12:00 and 1:00 and was free to go. Yesterday a police officer saw him acting suspiciously and a search turned up a plastic bag with the weed.

Channel 7