7 News Belize

Mark Flowers and Mason? Ex GSU Commander Says He was Undercover!
posted (July 26, 2016)
So where does Mark Flowers fit into all this? He was the one seen on Mason's verandah in a very friendly embrace. He was known to have close ties with the reputed conman. So today we asked him what he was up to - and he told us a quite incredible tale. He says he was undercover!:

Mark Flowers, former GSU Commander
"I had reasons to go there, but I also had all of the communication that was sent to me and having spoken to Russell Blackett, because the information was first passed to him. I went to his office and he showed me the communication and a link on his computer that spoke to. I did not know him before then and I said that I will get in there."

Daniel Ortiz
"So you were uncover?"

Mark Flowers, former GSU Commander
"Yes, I told him, I promise him that I will get in there and I went in and I having been armed with all the information, I still have them and for some strange reason I delete a lot of the messages, but I didn't delete those ones. That conversation with this businessman in Belmopan, because he texted me and said listen I've spoken to Mr. Blackett, he says he was going to talk to you, if you would come and see me in Belmopan, it's about somebody who is doing something in Belmopan that I need to share. So, when I met Danny Mason I already knew - all I knew is that he was ripped off of 120,000 dollars that was supposed to have given to the Minister of National Security as half purchase price for the Bandits Football Club. This is what Danny Mason was telling me. But he tried to con me out of my land, offering me 500,000 dollars for the transfer of my land at the end of 5 years, because he was going to do some project and at the end of 5 years, if he could have used my land for 5 years, he would have given me 500,000 dollars."

"Now I know what I know, but he didn't know what I knew then. So we were there and we were talking and I was asking him questions about his business and how he does his thing and that was then I got to know that he was buying half of Bandits and that he thinks that he was jilted out of his money and when he went back for his money he got words like 'when a ginal and ginal meet, only a ginal wins.' That is what he said to me. He was told to bring 10,000 dollars in US to the Bullfrog Inn on a Sunday morning which he delivered - the Big Creek project. These are the matters that we discussed, but I had to be accommodating to this big man. I didn't go as an undercover, I went as a businessman. I have a farm and we were talking farm and we were taking animals, but I didn't have any pigs. He told me he has the biggest pig farm in Belize. I said I have pigs too, but I don't have any pigs. I wanted this information to go on. I wanted to know more, because the next thing I was going to asked him was how the transfer was done with the Bank of America for 450,000 US dollars for the purchase of his house. How he was able to do that, because we thought we knew that somebody had to be swindled for that."

And as you heard, Flowers says that he had conversations with William Mason in which there is this allegation that John Saldivar supposedly proposed a co-partnership with Mason for the Belmopan Bandits Football Club. As you heard, Flowers says that Mason is claiming that he paid Saldivar over a hundred thousand dollars, but the National Security Minister supposedly jilted him out of it.

Today, we put that allegation directly to Minister John Saldivar and here's how he responded via telephone:

Daniel Ortiz
"And then finally sir, what of the things he disclosed to us, he says when he was investigating Mason from the inside as an undercover cop, some conversation he had with William Mason to the effect that you and William Mason was supposedly discussing shared ownership of the Belmopan Bandits and that this man paid you over 100,000 towards this half ownership and that you supposedly jilted the man - also another serious accusation."

Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Absolutely no basis for that. I've already disclosed what my relationship was with Mr. Mason with respect to the Belmopan Bandits. There was no jilting of anyone. We had an arrangement for him to contribute to the Belmopan Bandits and like I said when I found out information about his background, I decided to disassociate myself from him and he has no longer made any contributions to the Bandits after that time. Of course it has to concern me, but I think that people will see it for what it is and that is a man who has been accused of a serious and reprehensible crime about minors and a man who has a lot to lose by these charges being brought against him and I can see that he is a desperate man."

This evening, Acting Commissioner Russell Blackett called our office to say that he did not have ANY conversation Flowers about the William Mason investigation. He stressed that Flowers is not a part of any under-cover operation sanctioned by the police top brass, and if Flowers did any such operations, he did so on his own initiative.

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