The Commissioner also commented on that case of the close to 100 BDF uniforms which turned up last week at a private residence in Orange Walk. As we've told you, the majority of the uniforms were written off by the BDF - and the procedure is that the Ministry of Finance should have destroyed almost 1200 uniforms it received from the BDF. Yesterday the Financial Secretary Joe Waight conceded that there was a breakdown in procedure - what he called a "serious breach", because one of the men it contracted to do the disposal, Sarco Torres ended up with almost 100 of the uniforms at his home in Orange Walk Town. More interestingly, a Mexican was found with a bundle of the uniforms last Thursday heading to Botes, Mexico. And while all the uniforms were supposed to be old and unserviceable, one of the new type of British style camouflage uniforms was in the mix - which raises all kinds of questions. Also, there is a string of text messages that 7News has seen from a senior BDF Officer to Sarco Torres - where the BDF Officer tells Torres that no BDF patrols should have been in a certain area. It suggests collusion between the military and suspicious persons, but, yesterday, the Commander of the BDF, David Jones told us he knew of no such text message, and today when we asked him again via text about the British uniform and the text message form a senior officer, he did not reply.
But, the police also have a part to play in all this - since they released all three men who had been detained in connection with the uniforms. They said there was no sign that any crime had been committed. We asked the Commissioner about that today:...
Allen Whylie - Commissioner of Police
"I know a number of items were in deed found by the police. The matter is being investigated. Obviously the investigation has not concluded and there is nothing stopping us from at the end of that investigation to charge persons if in deed they have committed some crime or some offence. In terms of what those individuals were doing with those items, that process of the investigation is still on going."
"In the past I can recall that we use to charge people for being in possession of uniforms, but I was told that there was some challenge to a case that we had many years ago and the practice had cease in terms of charging for those things."
"What we are trying to establish is how those items got there, what those persons were doing with it and who took it there etc."
Reporter
"The financial secretary to us has said that this was a breach and we have since learnt that text messages have been sort of making the rounds in the press showing communication between the Mexican national and a senior BDF officer and someone from the Ministry of Finance being reference in those text messages."
Allen Whylie - Commissioner of Police
"I am certain that the Ministry of Defence is looking in terms of their internal process and to see if any breaches had occurred. We are looking at whether any criminal activity took place. But I cannot speak for the ministry of defence, you'd have to perhaps ask the CEO or perhaps the general."
Reporter
"Are police looking at those text messages, the electronic communication which indicates collusion, so to speak?"
Allen Whylie - Commissioner of Police
"I don't know if the police have seen them, have heard of them, have had access to them. Because its the first time I am hearing of it. But if you share them with Mr. Myvette who is the head in CIB, I am certain that he would get it to the investigators."
Reporter
"Is it a concern that these items may have been intended for exportation across the border where BDF related uniforms would be use for lawless purposes?"
Allen Whylie - Commissioner of Police
"I think you are asking me to speculate in terms of what the items were doing up there or how they got up there. I would be very concerned if equipment of a military nature from Belize like the uniforms would get in the hands over the border of any perhaps criminal elements."
Email
Print