The pull off lever from the grenade that exploded two Fridays ago in
the Port Loyola area was recovered on Saturday. The news tonight is that the
Belize Defense Force’s Bomb Expert Major James Requena confirms that as
he suspected, it is of the same make, brand, and type of grenade that was thrown
into a crowded street on carnival day. Requena says it is an offensive grenade
and based on the serial number it came from the same manufacturer. Major Requena
says that all indications are that the grenade came from the British Army’s
stock.
Major James Requena, BDF Bomb Expert
“The serial numbers or letters that was on the fly-off levers, we
matched it with the ones that I recovered on the 6th of September which is a
high explosive fragmentation L109a1 grenade. The serial numbers are HGZDM-82-CH.
This is one of the offensive grenades as I had speculated but since we found
or we retrieved the fly-off lever that gives credence to the possibility that
yes it was an offensive grenade. The problem with it now is that that is indicating 
that there is a possibility that there are more of those grenades out in the
public and as I’ve asked before, if people have it they don’t know
what they are doing with it. Please turn it into the police, the amnesty program
is still on. They can turn it in and nothing can be said about it.”
Keith Swift,
Let me just backtrack a little so the fact that it matches the same serial number,
does that also indicate that it came from the same source?
Major James Requena,
“Well the manufacturer is a British company as was the 6th of September.
Now as to the source who had it, I am not sure if it was the same persons that
threw the ones on the 6th.”
Keith Swift,
They found this lever but you guys had looked for the entire weekend and you
didn’t find it. Do you think you guys missed it or do you believe it was
put there?
Major James Requena,
“We did a thorough search. Nobody is perfect but based on my search
we even cleaned the yard to the ground, raked up all the rubbish, used a metal
detector to comb the area, we were able to recover foil paper that was about
ten years dug in the dirt so I can’t see how we could have missed it.
I am just saying that I think that it was removed from the area and later introduced
and subsequently handed in to the police.”
Alfonso Noble, Guardian Newspaper
“Is this grenade that detonated on Friday a couple weeks ago of the same
batch of the same make?”
Major James Requena,
“Well I cannot say it is of the same batch but it is of the same make
and the company that makes them is strictly for the British Army.”
Alfonso Noble,
“And the lever, how narrowly can you pinpoint where the grenade originated
from? How narrow in terms of issue, as you are saying, that it may come from
the British Army however can you narrow it further down to a specific date and
to a specific individual?”
Major James Requena,
“Well similarly they are doing their investigation and they will be
able to give us that information whenever they finish their investigation.”
Jules Vasquez,
Major are we confronting the likelihood that there is some of systemic leak
at the BATSUB unit that had some linkage with the civilian community and that
deadly explosives such as these are getting out? Are we seeing a trend forming
here?
Major James Requena,
“Jules as the Commander of BATSUB had stated in an interview, I think
it was a one off incident.”
Jules Vasquez,
Do we know how many grenades from that batch issued in August of last year for
training are unaccounted for?
Major James Requena,
“Well presently the investigation is still going on Jules. There was
a team in Belize brought in specifically from the UK to conduct that investigation.”
The lever is in the custody of police. One important variant that Major
Requena cannot determine is the batch number. That would normally be on the
grenade itself. The batch number would narrow down the origin of the grenade
since they are produced and distributed in batches.
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