Commissioner of Police in Belize, Chester Williams, stated the identification paperwork discovered on the charred stays of two individuals onboard a airplane that crashed quickly after it was stolen present that the people are from Argentina and Venezuela.
“We consider that each individuals got here in illegally as a result of we had checked with immigration and immigration has confirmed that there have been no data to point that these two people got here into the nation by our authorized port of entry,” Williams stated, including that police have acquired “sure data” after checking with their Venezuelan counterparts.
Williams stated he has put collectively a staff of investigators and “we even have members of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Company) from the [US] embassy assigned to that investigation and they’re working with the DEA counterparts in each Argentina and Venezuela to establish the kind of actions these two people could have been concerned in inside their respective international locations.
“Likewise, the civil aviation can also be part of that investigation, they wish to see what could have induced the accident.”
The Cessna Caravan turboprop plane was reportedly stolen by armed thieves in Placencia in southern Belize.
However, shortly after takeoff, the airplane clipped a lamp put up and crash landed in bushes close to mile twenty-one on the Placencia Street.
“Investigation revealed {that a} safety guard who was working on the airstrip was approached by 4 male individuals armed with firearms who tied him up and thereafter he heard the sounds of an plane began after which thereafter he heard a loud bang and an explosion,” stated Assistant Commissioner of Police, Hilberto Romero, the Regional Commander of the Japanese Division.
Williams says that definitely, Belizeans facilitated the theft of the plane.
“We nonetheless want to establish which Belizeans could have been in cahoots with them as a result of actually they needed to have had assist domestically. And so we try to determine which Belizeans could have been in cahoots with them. So the investigation remains to be ongoing and we hope on the conclusion, we can discover the solutions that we want.”
Williams stated that whereas the safety guard had claimed that there have been 4 armed males who accosted him, “surveillance footage from the airstrip [shows], that there could have been as a lot as eight people who went there.
“And sure, they got here in each boats and automobiles. Shortly after the airplane took off, the boat and the automobile had been seen dashing off from the world. Like I stated, we’re nonetheless making an attempt to establish precisely who these individuals are and like I stated, we consider that they could be Belizeans who’re concerned with them.
“It is also that the boat got here straight from Honduras or some neighbouring nation and went on to that space to do what they wanted to do by way of the stealing of that plane. So these are issues we’re nonetheless taking a look at to resolve this investigation.”
Williams stated “all indications” are that the “airplane was being stolen to go and do a bootleg run, maybe from South America to Belize.
“That they had further bottles of gasoline within the plane which means that they had been happening a long term. So we are going to see how that seems on the finish of the investigation,” he added.
