Re-trial of former police officers who allegedly assisted in landing drug plane adjourned into next month

Published by BBNTEAM at April 26, 2023

Posted: Wednesday, April 26, 2023. 12:26 pm CST.

Photo: Channel 5 News

By Breaking Belize News Staff: The retrial of six men, most of them former law enforcement, who are accused of assisting one of the largest drug busts on record was to begin this week but the prosecution requested an adjournment.

The case of The King v Jacinto Roches, Renel Grant, Lawrence Humes, Nelson Middleton, Harold Usher, and Victor Logan, was scheduled to commence on Monday, April 24 in the Belmopan Supreme Court, however, the lead prosecutor reportedly fell ill, and his co-counsel requested an adjournment of at least two weeks, which was granted.

The men are accused of facilitating the landing of a twin-engine Super King Air Beechcraft airplane carrying over 2 tons of cocaine between Miles 56 and 57 on the Southern Highway in the vicinity of Bladen Village, Toledo District 13 November 2010.

They were tried in the Dangriga Supreme Court and in June 20914 were acquitted after the trial judge accepted a no-case submission from the attorneys of the accused men. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the decision and was successful in getting the Court of Appeal to quash that trial judge’s decision. The men were re-indicted on 22nd January 2016 for Abetment for the Importation of a Controlled Drug.

They are represented in this latest case by Arthur Saldivar, Dickie Bradley, Simeon Sampson, Anthony Sylvester, and Oscar Selgado.

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