7 News Belize

Customs Makes Very Major Bust
posted (April 23, 2015)
There was a huge contraband bust this evening in northern Belize - and the Customs Department had to mobilize a huge operation just to get the stuff out of there. The bust was made in the Rio Hondo River - 12 miles behind August Pine Ridge - where a team of four customs officers saw five dories coming across a canal connected to the Rio Hondo laden with a huge, almost unbelievable load. We're talking about fifty sacks of onions, 40 cases of beers and various other goods. The dories also had engines, and two of the dorey operators threw their cargo overboard, while three others jumped out of their dories and swam away - leaving customs to collect the dories and the huge amount of contraband. How much was it? Well, what started as a four-man operation with only customs turned into a 40 man operation with police and BDF added in. They had to call for backup because the contraband crew had set up improvised roadblocks to take back the goods from the customs officers when they were on their way out! When they did roll out, the goods had to be spread across eight vehicles, including 2 BDF four ton trucks, which were full, a police F-150 truck and four Customs vehicles. They also had to load the very large dories into the trucks. No one was arrested and twenty minutes ago, the goods reached the customs house in Orange Walk. An initial assessment says that the loss to the smugglers - including the engine powered dories is as much as fifty thousand dollars.

Customs authorities have been monitoring this area for months - where shipments of this size can be as regular as four times a week, they say. We'll have a full rundown of the items tomorrow.

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7 News Belize