Tonight, nine drums or 450 gallons of aviation fuel are sitting at the Ladyville police station – the product of an all-day search by Ladyville police and the Belize Special assignment group yesterday. At 10:00 in the morning, they received information that a plane was circling in the area West of Crooked Tree. A team of two dozen BDF soldiers and police were dispatched to scour the vast area between Crooked Tree and Shipyard. 7news got information as well, but our quest only took us to the Lagoon at behind Crooked Tree, as the terrain was treacherous beyond that.
But police persisted, and at 2:30 pm, between an area known as Backlanding and Shipyard they encountered an abandoned runway – one that had been destroyed by BDF explosives months ago.
But about 100 yards from the runway they found 9 full drums of aviation fuel. The drums were covered with palms and Bay leaves – likely for concealment and protection against the sun. There were also 16 empty clear plastic fuel containers beside them, likely used for refueling vehicles and ATV's.
The nine drums contain less than 500 gallons, but the black market value is through the roof: 7news has confirmed with two sources that – on the black market – 9 drums like that, full of fuel sells for forty five thousand Belize dollars!
Very valuable to those refueling drug planes, but just plain old found property to police, who loaded the fuel into two trucks and took all of it into custody.
And despite that seizure yesterday afternoon, reports say that between midnight last night and 4:00 this morning – the drone of airplanes could be heard above Carmelita and Shipyard, between midnight and four am. Police believe those planes are looking to make a fuel stop in the area – which is very active during the dry months of February to May.
It is of note that the US Army Southcom set up a radar in the Orange Walk District about two months ago – but it is believes that these aircraft fly below detectable range.
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