The Friends for Conservation and Development, the co-managers of the Chiquibul National Park, are reporting tonight that a Guatemalan gold panner was caught inside Belizean territory.

35 year-old Eliseo Che Mucu was caught on Thursday, October 15, in an area 7 kilometers inside Belize. This gold panner, a resident of Monte Los Olivos, Dolores Peten, was caught in his camp that he had set up. The Belizean law enforcement team found 3 vials containing what they believe to to be gold.

He told the Belizean officers that he, his brother Pedro Mucu, and another person who escaped, were digging in the bed of a nearby river looking for gold. He admitted while under interrogation that this is not the first time that he has been caught illegally gold panning, and that he knew that he was in Belizean territory. He says that he was once caught in the Ceibo Chico area.

He also informed the officers that there are other gold panner who come from many parts of Guatemala, such as Poptun and Dolores. He claims to have been selling this illegal gold that he found in the Chiqibul to businesspersons in Poptun at 150 quetzals - or 74 Belizean dollars - per gram of gold.

It is expected that he will be charged and then deported.