And still ahead - we'll tell you about the weekend's most shocking murder - a man who was beheaded in Duck Run village - allegedly because he once ran with a Guatemalan gang. That story is coming, but first to the latest development with the Offshore company called Titan Security. As we reported all of last week, Titan, and five other offshore companies based in Belize were named in a federal indictment.
When the indictment was unsealed on Tuesday in New York, that sent the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Police straight over to Titan's offices at the Matalon Building on Coney Drive where police cleaned it out - down to the last garbage bin and stapler.
But while their companies records were being confiscated for US Authorities, the owners of Titan, Bahamians 34 year old Kelvin Leach and 29 year old Rohn Knowles were free to go; they were not accused of any crime in Belize - and though the US said they would seek extradition, no request was forthcoming.
So, they decided to head out, presumably to the Bahamas, since their office in Belize had been effectively shut down. But on Friday, Belize police moved in again, this time to intercept them at the airport.
They accused them of failure to declare when leaving Belize with more than $10,000 dollars. Leach had $6,300 US currency and Knowles had $6,000 US currency. They were arrested on Friday, and spent the weekend in police lockdown. Today they appeared today before Magistrate Dale Cayetano on charges of failure to declare. They pled not guilty and although the prosecution had objected to bail on the ground that they were a flight risk, their attorney, Godfrey Smith secured bail for them by submitting that the offence was a small one and their passports are already held by the FIU. They were then granted bail of $7,000 dollars each. But before they could taste freedom, they were whisked off by the police on a warrant for their extradition to the US. Their attorney Godfrey Smith, making a rare Magistrate's Court appearance, explained:
Godfrey Smith, Attorney
"On Friday after we had cleared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that there was no request pending for their extradition because these gentlemen did not intend to flee or they are not running away. They are prepared to face whatever comes, but we went to the extent of finding out clearly whether there was any impediment to their travel which is why they went very openly to the Phillip Goldson to fly because there was no warrant for their arrest either locally or through extradition proceedings. Before they were given the opportunity to approach any authority and say look we have certain cash here - they were grabbed, detained for a long process of searching where the money was found, but the money wasn't being hidden, they told right away that they had the money and of course as I said that was a stalling tactic to buy time to get the extradition request. What we got bail for this morning was the trumped-up charge of failing to declare currency of a certain amount which we always as a stalling tactic to buy time for the extradition request to come, so as soon as they were granted bail the warrant for their apprehension signed by the magistrate was issued based on the request for extradition. I believe that this state of Belize is the instrument of the United States government in relation to this particular case."
When we checked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today, no request for extradition has yet been forwarded by US authorities. But, the law does make provision for a warrant for extradition. So, tonight they remain in police custody. They are wanted along with four other defendants including Belizean Andrew Godfrey, for participating in a scheme to defraud the US Government of 1 billion dollars in taxes by facilitating over 100 US citizens in circumventing US taxes.
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