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Some Stolen Steel Returned
posted (November 9, 2012)
Last night we showed you an 18-wheeler with thousands of lengths of fraudulently obtained lengths of steel parked outside a hardware store in Corozal - without any police guard.

And our expose seems to have forced the hand of higher-up's in the police department - who originally didn't want the steel moved from Corozal - even though it was the subject of a criminal investigation in the Cayo district.

This morning, they let the truck return to Midwest Steel in Spanish Lookout with three thousand lengths of steel. But that's only part of the fraudulent transaction. The suspect bought five thousand lengths of steel for sixty-one thousand dollars on Saturday with a bogus check.

Three thousand of those have been returned, but two thousand are reportedly still in the warehouse of the Corozal hardware store. And again, it seems the owner is getting special treatment from Corozal police - who appear reluctant to move in and confiscate everything - even as the items are believed to be the proceeds of fraud.

As we reported, on Saturday, a man known to police purchased the steel at Midwest Steel in Spanish Lookout - and it was later sold to the hardware store - reportedly for twenty thousand dollars. The transaction also included fifteen thousand dollars in plywood which was also fraudulently purchased from Caribbean Tyres. The retail value of all those items is eighty-four thousand dollars - but the owner of the Corozal Hardware store - reportedly bought it all for twenty thousand dollars, a quarter of the price.

As a hardware dealer - it stands to reason that he should have known better - but police have made no move - as yet - to implicate him in the criminal investigation.

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