One of the chief operations that the BDF has been employing to deter illegal activities is the Incisive Gallop operation. As we've told you, the idea behind it is that the BDF employ reconnaissance teams to gather intelligence about the illegal activities along the hotspots, and then Incisive Gallop is launched with mass deployment to destroy illegal farms and detain cross border interlopers.
More than 90 soldiers and law enforcement officers are deployed for a week, where they move along and conduct surgical strikes.
There have been 3 Gallops so far, and today he discussed the second one which happened in May:
Brig. Gen. David Jones, Commander, Belize Defence Force
"The second operation that went in May, this occurred in the area of Valentin Camp, Cohune Ridge Sebada, Ceibo Chico and all the way up north - Arenal. 21 plantations of various crops such as corn, cassava, beans, and pumpkins were destroyed. Whatever has been planted in that area, the soldiers and the other supporting agencies who went in with us conducted the destruction of these operations. A total of approximately 118 acres of illegal plantations we destroyed on that second operation. it's quite a number of acres to be cutting down in a short period of time and with the distance that the soldiers need to cover is a long area they need to cover."
The third one happened 4 weeks ago, and today, the General Discussed it with us:
Brig. Gen. David Jones
"Focusing in the areas again Valentin, Cohune Ridge area, De Oro and Ceibo Chico - plantations as normal of various crops and sizes to include beans, banana, cassava, pumpkins were destroyed. the plantations were in excess of over 35 acres. A number of the patrols that have destroyed some of these plantations did not record the exact size, so it would definitely be in excess of 50 acres of plantations that were destroyed in this second operation. Various clearance and pastures were found in the area, even cattle were grazing on some of the areas that we found. 6 Guatemalans were detained during this second operation and they were released. They weren't found with anything illegal but they were escorted back across the border into Guatemala. During the operation as normal there has been a network of roads and tracks that we have discovered. These lead east to west, so from inside Guatemala they come into Belize; they come in to do their illegal activities be it either extracting Xate or logwood and then what has been prominent now, a part from the planting of vegetation, marijuana is being planted a lot in our country and we suspect its mainly from Guatemalans because it's so close to the border. We don't expect Belizeans to be traveling that far into the jungle to go and plant marijuana that far or even crops as well, so marijuana cultivation has become prominent very close to our border."
As part of the new operations, General Jones says that once any of the patrols encounter plantations of any sort that is 300 meters or more inside Belizean Territory, he gives the order for it to be destroyed immediately. This is a departure from the 1 kilometer "Adjacency Zone" principle where anything within that 1k had to await OAS verification. That leeway allowed the farmers to move up their timeline and reap the crops before that process was finished, thereby rendering the illegality hard to prove.
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