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Capital City Business Man Claims MIT Extortion
Mon, October 24, 2016
Residents of Belmopan may know businessman Raul Acevedo. He's an importer who travels to Mexico regularly to import various items for sale. Right now, he currently moves 500 kinds of goods over the border at different intervals. He claims that he was returning this weekend, from one such trip with his wife, when he was intercepted by officers of the Mobile Interdiction Team. He had already cleared customs in Corozal and paid duty, but he did have one undeclared box of perfumes. And that's what got him in trouble with the MIT - except he says they weren't looking for a customs offense, he claims they wanted a bribe.

He says that after hours in detention, they they played on the fear of his wife, who didn't want to go to jail for contraband, who convinced him that they would let him go if he paid them $2,000. He admits that he eventually did pay it in 16 thousand Mexican pesos, but that's after he knocked down the price; they originally wanted $5,000 dollars.

So, here's Acevedo account of how it happened. He said that after finishing business on Friday, they stayed a little longer to watch a movie. They passed the Corozal Border at around 6 p.m., and after some 3 hours of driving, he passed the Hattieville Boom road. He says that at around mile 25 on the George Price Highway, he was intercepted by the MIT vehicle. they stripped down the vehicle and found the unaccustomed goods - and the officers then took him from the mile 25 area to their headquarters on the Police Training Academy Compound in Belmopan.

That's where, according to him, they convinced him that they had already reported him to the Customs Department, and they were threatening to lay an additional criminal charge on him. They allegedly offered to forego the charge if he agreed to pay them. Yesterday, he gave his account of the persistence of the officers who were allegedly determined to extort him:

Raul Acevedo, Claims MIT extortion
"I just told them what kind of problem I have and they said I have contraband, I have this and that and if I wanted to come out of that I'd have to come up. I asked 'well how do you mean come up?' and they said 'well you have to come up with some cash'. Then they said if I gave them $5,000 I can get through with the journey I'm going on. I told them 'well listen I don't have that kind of money and I can't pay it because I have nothing illegal in my van'. They told me 'well you have to face the consequences' and I said 'okay then we'll have to do that'. so my wife started to get scared and asked me to arrange something with them so I went back to them and said 'listen what's going on?', they said if I don't come up with that money in 15 minutes, they'll just take me station or call customs. They told me that I have 2 charges, one for having illegal stuff and one with them for committing a crime. I said 'okay well what's the crime?' and they said 'there's an additional charge for that crime'. they said I committed a crime and they can charge me, so to prevent that charge id have to give them $2000 and they'll release me to customs. I told them 'but I didn't commit any crime' and they said 'well that's it we'll have to charge you'. they said they were going to put charges so my wife got a little scared and told me to hand them over but I told them 'I have no Belize money on me'. They told me I had because they had already searched me and I had over 150 thousand pesos in my possession, roughly about $14000 in my pocket. They told me that they don't mind taking pesos and I said 'alright I will do the figures and I'll give you 16,000 pesos'. I gave them 16,000 pesos which was equivalent to $2,000 BZD. I gave them that and they told me they would not press charges on me because I had an additional charge when I committed no kind of offence, no crime but I still did give it to them because my wife was kind of scared. we have 4 kids at home that we have to take care of so my wife told me she obligated me to do so, I never wanted to do it but my wife said it because she was scared at the time and they hand cuffed both of us."

We did verify with the Customs Department that they were called in to assess the unaccustomed goods which was negligible.

Today, we contacted a member of the Mobile Interdiction Team who completely refuted Acevedo's story. That officer told us, quote, "It is a false accusation."

Acevedo assures us that he will file official reports with police internal affairs, and with the Customs Department to get it on their record. He added that he will also seek the advice of an attorney.

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