Today, four persons who were caught with heroin on Tuesday afternoon appeared in the Corozal Magistrate's Court. They are 51 year old Fermin Velasquez, 25 year old Eber Rivera, 38 year old mother of two Alba Velasquez and the odd man out, Chinese hotel owner Kua Hsiung Liao known as Peter. They were all charged for trafficking 16.5 pounds of heroin and remanded to prison until September third.
Now, 16.5 pounds is a lot with a street value of 1.4 million US dollars – according to figures posted on the internet. So how were they caught? Well it was the anti-drug unit –which moved on a house in Ranchito, Corozal on Tuesday at 4:30 pm. The police noticed that the Chinese businessman had been frequenting the house – which didn't fit, because it was quite run down. That caused police to suspect something, and when they raided the building they found Velasquez, Rivera and Peter in a backroom with 7 parcels of heroin looking very surprised. They were downstairs while Alba Velasquez and her two under aged children were upstairs.
She is from Salvador, while Velasquez is from Ranchito, Rivera is from San Joaquin and the Chinese businessman is from mile 8 where he runs a hotel.
This is the third major heroin bust police are making in the north in the past 15 months – and they believe that Corozal and Orange Walk are being used as a forward transshipment point to send the heroin to Mexico and then eventually unto the United States. The last bust was the biggest, weighing in at 40 pounds – this one was 16 and a half.
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