Javier Montano fined and expelled, ending ‘Mexican Cartel’ saga

Published by BBNTEAM at August 29, 2023

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Posted: Tuesday, August 29, 2023. 10:02 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: 31-year-old Javier Montano Martinez has been expelled from Belize after paying another fine for an Immigration offense, ending the brief saga of an alleged Mexican drug cartel seeking out a Belizean drug dealer on a hit.

Montano returned to court on a charge of failure to comply with the conditions of an employment permit but attorney Bryan Neal raised an objection in court.

Neal was asked to write out the objection and then present it orally in court. The substance was that the Immigration Department had had his client in their custody for up to 11 days, far longer than the Constitution allows and so a violation of Martinez’s Constitutional rights even though he is only a guest of Belize.

Further, said Neal, at the point when it was thought that the Department was done with Martinez, they added a new charge and committed an abuse of process as no new facts appear to be before the court on the matter. He concluded that the department in his view was abusing the law and using the court to punish his client, because they knew that a fine would not do so, and he humbly asked the court to not allow the new charges to be read to his client.

Answering for the Department, Assistant Director of Border Management & Immigration Services Ismael Caesar Pulido said that Martinez was first detained by the Belize Police Department before being handed to them and that it was based on that investigation that new developments led to additional charges.

Neal subsequently withdrew the objection and Martinez conceded to employing five Mexican nationals at Tekon Construction Limited in Ladyville who it appears did not have their documentation. He forthwith paid a fine of $1,000, reduced from the maximum $3,000 despite his previous conviction.

Martinez’s workers had been discovered by police on August 20 at an apartment at Lake Gardens, Ladyville, as well as at a house under construction. Martinez himself and six others were picked up around 12:30 in downtown Corozal.

The other six, with addresses ranging from Cancun to Puebla and Guadalajara in central Mexico, were released earlier this week.

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