On Thursday, the San Pedro Sun broke a sensational story based on a leaked internal memorandum from San Pedro police. The document dated 16th October is directed to the Head of the Fisheries Department and it directly implicates a fisheries officer for being involved in drug trafficking. The officer in question was assigned to the Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve on northern Ambergris Caye. The memo says that he used his fisheries vessel to transport the beachcombers who look for wet drops on the north end of Ambergris Caye. The police say he was also caught with a drug dealer who had three pounds of marijuana and fifteen thousand dollars in cash and charged with drug trafficking. The police conclude that he poses a serious security threat to the reserve because reports say he is wanted dead by the Mexican cartel.
Very serious allegations, and while the report is dated mid October - the fisheries Director says it wasn't emailed to her until Tuesday of this week. Today the CEO in the Ministry told us they have acted on it:..
Adele Catzim-Sanchez, CEO - Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries, Sust. Dev.
"Yes we have received this information. The officer has since been relief of his responsibilities and is no longer located at the Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve. We are working with the Ministry of National Security to investigate the matter. At this point these are the allegations that are being made, but we are still taking them seriously because there are some grave security concerns that are related to this issue. In the meantime we decided that the officer will be engaging in limited duties under a very strict supervision and until the investigations are concluded we will figure out how we deal with the situation through the public service. What we do believe is that something like this is serious enough to pay very keen attention to the issue and to make sure that we collect all the facts related to the matter, so that we can act in an informed way to address the issue."
Jules Vasquez
"How do we safeguard ourselves against this going forward? Yes that officer may be moved, but then enticement is still there. These people offer large amounts of money and the fisheries officers at some point they represent security of transport for illicit cargo."
Adele Catzim-Sanchez
"Jules what you are referring to is something that is much bigger than the Fisheries Department, even bigger than the government itself. You are referring to international organized trade and illegal activity. What I can say is that our ministry is working very closely with the Ministry of National Security to try to put in place mitigation measures in relation to security for all our officers."
The Director of the Fisheries Department told us that she has written to the Commissioner of Police to launch a formal investigation since the report sent was mostly allegations.
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