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ACP Elodio Aragon - In Charge Operation Jaguar
"Today marks the start of the 4th week of Operation Jaguar and thus far there has been a marked reduction of crime in specific the Southside of Belize City. Operation Jaguar to date has seen over 398 vehicle searches, 1,960 persons stop and searched, 65 houses searched and a total of 43 persons arrested and charged for varying offences such as possession of unlicensed ammunition, possession of drugs, drug trafficking and traffic offences. However, most of these arrests have been for drug trafficking and possession of drugs. In total there have been 2,546.6 grams of cannabis seeds, 5 kilos of suspected cocaine, 37.8 grams of suspected crack cocaine, 6.5 grams of suspected heroine, 1 marijuana plant and two pipes. Also there have been 44 live rounds of 9 mm seized along with one 9 mm magazine, one 9 mm pistol, four M-16 magazines, three rounds of .22 and one .22 pistol seized, three 12 gauge cartridges and one homemade shotgun."

That's only two pistols and one home-made shotgun in four weeks - an underwhelming total.

Lt. Col David Jones, BDF
"You quite rightly pointed out that there hasn't been a substantial amount of weapons being seized or other firearms or so. From the time the public has been aware of this operation I suspect that these guys would start to hide the weapons. The main aim for this operation was to reduce the crime rate especially the shootings that have been occurring in Belize City and reduce the amount of murders that have been occurring."

ACP Elodio Aragon
"We know that there are firearms out there; we are doing our best to take them off the streets. Now a lot of this is based on intelligence, so the intelligence aspect of policing must come into play to bear on what we do out there."

But beyond firearm seizures Jaguar is keeping the streets safe.

ACP Elodio Aragon
"Since the inception of the operation there has been a decrease of shootings gun related violence and crime on the streets of Belize City. Although there is still crime taking place it is not to the level and heinousness that is was the month before. We are cognizant that we cannot stop crime, however it is important that we continue to work at reducing it."

Lt. Col David Jones
"Of course the criminals maybe waiting for this operation to stop then they will come back out and then it will not be a good thing that we have achieve or able to do that."

And that's why Jaguar will continue until further orders.

Lt. Col David Jones
"This operation is being used as a measuring stick as to the next step as where it will go. It will not be a good idea if we just pulled out suddenly and then there is no operation occurring within the crime ridden areas and then suddenly as we pull out then the crime goes back to normal. That would not be a good idea, so it's going to take a good strategy to say 'ok, this is the way we are going to pull out and this is what is going to replace it.'"

ACP Elodio Aragon "What we want to do is bring the crime to an acceptable level or do our best to bring it down to the lowest we can and I believe that there must be in place and I think that is where the Prime Minister's plan will tend to come into take over from what this operation actually started out to do."

A decision on the future of Jaguar will be made at a meeting of the National Security Council next week Thursday. The operation is bolstered by the addition of at least one more moving part as Superintendent Alford Grinage and his Toyota Hilux are back in operation. Viewers will recall that on May 19th. Grinage crashed the undercover Hilux while he was leading a drug intercept operation. Well, the Hilux looked as good as new when we saw it today and Grinage said he is back on full duty - if not necessarily in the driver's seat.