Recently, when 4 kilos of Crystal Meth was intercepted at the western border - it gave some suggestion of how much illicit traffic is smuggled through formal border points.
Much of that traffic is illicit drugs - destined for the United States the world's largest drug consuming state.
And that insatiable demand is why the US - through its Central American Regional Security Initiative known as CARSI tried to curb supply by providing training and equipment for Belizean law enforcement.
They facilitated an international border interdiction training this week. Margaret Hawthorne form the US Embassy told us how this kind of training has already paid dividends:
Margaret Hawthorne - Representative, US Embassy
"'You know what? One of the students in that class was just instrumental in the largest Cocaine seizure on the Northern border of Belize, a hundred and eleven Kilos. And he used his CT-30 kit to go and check a vehicle that had already passed the initial inspection. But, he took his training and he said, 'You know, something is not right.' And working with officials up on the northern border, he identified that there might be a hidden cavity in that vehicle. And they pulled it back, broke it open, and they found 110 kilos of cocaine, so, tremendous success. And just the training a few weeks ago, one of the officers involved in that was part of the team that busted the 4 kilograms of crystal-meth on the Western Highway, just a couple of weeks ago."
The training was held at the Belize Police Academy for police, immigration and customs.
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