We start in Benque Viejo where this morning Customs came upon a 40 foot container stuffed with 28 tonnes of Rosewood that was being imported into Belize from Guatemala. Sounds strange and it is because the container's paperwork says it is to be shipped out from the Port Of Belize to a company in China.

Now, Guatemala does not allow the exportation of Rosewood flitches. The flitches also didn't have any stamps FROM the forestry department in Guatemala. Actually, the only markings it had were chalk scribbling similar to the Rosewood catch that was burnt last week.

So, the theory here is that the Rosewood was smuggled from Belize into Guatemala and then brought back to Belize under the bogus cover of an import. Either that or it was slipped into the import section at the Benque border - which would only require the cooperation of a few corrupt persons.

Whatever the case, it was introduced to Belize territory yesterday and discovered today. While it is being held, the Forestry Department has contacted its counterparts in Guatemala.

And while that is being held at the Western border - there was an interesting development today in Belize City, which brings us right back to where this story started. The Forestry Department received information which told them that two twenty foot containers with Rosewood were sitting in the compound of Belize Engineering. Police and Customs were called. Along with the Forestry Department - they opened the container at 5:00 pm and found them, again, full of Rosewood flitches. The amount has not been tabulated yet, but the Rosewood has no stamp which makes it automatically illegal. Also, the containers they are stored in were released from Customs in November - which was after the Rosewood moratorium went into effect. With that, the Forestry Department quickly secured two heads and pulled them out at 6:00 pm, bound for safe storage in Belmopan.