William Danny Mason and four others are charged for the savage murder of Pastor Llewellyn Lucas, but the mystery of William Mason and his deep connections go much further - in fact, the more you dig, the dirtier it gets. Consider for example this fact: on the night was arrested, the first police unit sent to assist the arresting officer at a Bar in the Industrial site area of Belmopan? They actually turned back and left the arresting officer to fend for himself! And why? Well because they couldn't arrest a man who had done so much for them. Eventually, a second unit had to be sent to make the arrest. That's a fact which clearly illustrates how deep Mason's tentacles went into the corridors of policing and politics. His friendship with senior members of the UDP has been well publicized, and his area representative John Saldivar is the name that has been called most often. The Minister also admitted to receiving donations from Mason to fund his football club - the Belmopan Bandits. Today he confirmed to the media how much Mason gave - fifty thousand dollars. But in all the Minister's dealings with the now accused murderer, what did he truly know about the nature of Mason's enterprise? Today we asked him just that.
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Like I said, the red flags came up once the information was provided to me and I've said before, no there weren't any red flags before them. This man, even if you googled him name you would not have found anything on the name that he provided with us. It wasn't until someone provided us with another name which he may have been using that we were able to find the information. I have said it before and I repeat it, as soon as I found that information which were allegations at the time, I still disassociated myself from him. I haven't seen Mr. Mason since last year and that's the fact."
Reporter
"And there were no exchange of phone calls, text message, nothing like that since last year?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"I have not had any contact with Mr. Mason since last year, that's what I've said and I stand by that."
Emanuel Pech
"Of course he might have caught feelings, so to say, when you severed your relationship with him. Was there any such thing?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"I don't know, I haven't spoken to him so I don't know what his feelings were, I don't know anything about that and I won't make any assumptions about it."
Emanuel Pech
"He was a contributor to your football club. Did he ever make any contact to you to say 'what's going on? I contributed to you and you're not talking to me anymore.'?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"I basically disassociated myself from him and I think that speaks for itself. I disassociated myself."
Reporter
"Sir while you've admitted that yes there were contributions, can you give us an amount?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Well it was over a period of time but I would say in excess of 50,000 for sure. Semi-pro football is not a cheap venture as you know and he hasn't contributed for the last 2 seasons. He is not a part of my organization anymore."
Emanuel Pech
"Were there any conditions to that contribution?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Conditions like what? No, no conditions. He represented himself as somebody who loves sports. He had been contributing to other semi-pro football teams in the country at the time and he decided he wanted to help my team."
Reporter
"When he contributed to your football club, how was this done? Check? Cash? What?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Cash."
Reporter
"Didn't that raised any flags?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"What kind of flags would it raise Marisol? In the general course of things, we solicit sponsorships for various activates that we do, not just football but even community activities. Many of these are given by cash, that didn't raised any red flags at all and like I said, it was one payment of $50,000, it was over a period of time."
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