After a week into the investigation of alleged human smuggling through the Phillip S.W. Goldson International Airport, warrants were issued for the arrest of six Immigration Officers on Tuesday, October 12. Those officers are Martin Guy, Mark Tench, Jason Daly, Angelica Lima, Lindsay Wade and Candra Coleman Wade. These six officers were assigned to the airport when the three flights landed on September 18 and 19 and on October 3. At a press conference on Tuesday, a team of top security officials explained why those six individuals are of most immediate attention and what steps have now been taken to prevent such activity from occurring again.
The team that addressed the media on Tuesday was comprised of the Minister of Defence and Immigration, Hon. Carlos Perdomo, Minister of Police and Public Safety, Senator Doug Singh, CEO in the Ministry of Defence and Immigration, CEO in the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and the head of the Criminal Investigative Branch. Minister Singh revealed that the 33 passengers on the planes were Chinese nationals not Japanese as was presumed from the statements of the Immigration Officers. The officers claimed that they processed the passengers and they had Japanese passports with Belize visas. Singh said that the information placed on the arrival record by the officers may have been falsified. He said that visa numbers listed for all 33 passengers “exist in the vault at the Immigration Department which means that the numbers have never been issued to anyone.”
He also believes that the Japanese visas they possessed were counterfeit and the Belizean security officials are collaborating with their Japanese counterparts to confirm that point. Another fact that placed a hole in the officers’ testimony was the speed in which the individuals were processed. According to the surveillance tapes, the passengers got off the plane at 6:54 p.m. on October 3 and boarded a bus at 7:07 p.m. Anyone who has passed through the airport will confirm that compared to the normal procedure that transaction is lightning quick. Therefore, the immigration officials obviously lied in the investigation and that is why they are already facing the music.
The question is then, could six immigration officers possibly pull off the smuggling of undocumented individuals through the country’s national airport by themselves. The answer is definitely not and that is what the team of security officials is seeking to unravel. Thus far, they have conducted the investigation by examining the normal procedures by agencies at the airport to determine if there was any deviation from protocol. The Civil Aviation Department has been cleared since they followed their normal procedures. They are responsible to regulate flights departing and arriving at the airport and inform the relevant agencies at least two hours prior to arrival or departure. The investigation revealed that they did their job. Though no one from the Customs Department has been arrested thus far, the investigation revealed that the Custom Officers can not be cleared as yet.
The officers indicated that they completed the customs declaration forms but those forms have gone missing. Singh said, “We feel that it is possible that no customs forms were completed because they would have had to assist the Chinese passengers because of the language issue.” Translating the Japanese/Chinese dialects to English for 13 passengers would be almost impossible in 13 minutes. Therefore, their story is sketchy at best. However, being recognized as the whistle blowers has its advantages. Three special branch officers who were posted at the airport are also being investigated as well because the Minister of Police believes they should have informed their superior. Police know the identity of the driver of the pick-up van and he too is a target of the investigation.
The investigation being conducted is thorough and intense. The greatest hope is to get to the real players in the operation. The people who can charter planes; acquire false visas from multiple countries, orchestrate smuggling through international airports and get others to keep their mouths shut. In all truth, that hope can only be recorded as mere fantasy. However, there are measures that can be taken to make it more difficult for the operation to take place. That is why the Ministry of Defense and Immigration has inserted stipulations that take away the signing powers of officers in certain processes and transferring those to the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry.
The Minister said the highest official in the respective offices must be alerted because they will be held responsible. Also the Ministry has set a moratorium on visas offered to non Cubans at the Embassy in Cuba. Cuba is near to Haiti from which the flights came. Cuba has a no visa requirement with some Asian countries and that may be detrimental to the security of Belize and make us vulnerable to those kinds of smuggling operations. Therefore, only Cuban natives will be able to apply for Belizean visas from the Embassy in Cuba.
The Minister said that it is understood why Japanese passports might have been chosen in the operation. Chinese natives are among the individuals that are red flagged for Belize. Japanese are not.
