Gomez Diaz, who is the director of Coral's Company Limited, went to the Magistrate's Court today to fight against a forfeiture application made by the Comptroller of Customs. The 150 cases of ham, weighing 3,456 pounds, landed in Belize on November 20 of last year, but he didn't have an import permit for it. So, BAHA wrote him requesting that it be returned to wherever it came from, but he failed to comply. That's when BAHA turned over the case to the Customs Department, which then made an application for forfeiture.

Gomez Diaz hired an attorney and he appeared today before the Senior Magistrate, Sharon Frazer, to try to get the application thrown out. That attorney has since written to the court asking for the opportunity for their side to be heard. He explained that the ham was not destined for Belize, it was to go to Mexico. He also added that this is not the first time he has imported ham to Belize, but this was the first time that it arrived before he got the import license.