Cop convicted of extortion; shook down tourists for steak dinner money

Published by BBNTEAM at October 31, 2024

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Posted: Thursday, October 31, 2024. 9:44 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: Jairo Daniel Amador was found guilty by a jury of shaking down a Canadian tourist by demanding a US$100 ‘donation’ to let go an insurance violation at a checkpoint in 2022.

The seven women and two men empaneled before High Court Justice Derrick Sylvester needed about three hours of deliberating before returning a unanimous verdict just before three this afternoon.

Justice Sylvester will sentence Amador on November 25, with written submissions and reports due by November 21.

Amador was represented by attorney Norman Rodriguez while the Crown was represented by Shanell Fernandez of the DPP’s office.

The 52-year-old complainant testified that she was visiting Belize looking for a property to buy.

She had arrived on September 28, 2022, with her husband, where they rented a vehicle on October 1, 2022 and while returning the vehicle to the airport, and driving on the George Price Highway heading from Hattieville to the airport, they were stopped by police at a police checkpoint at Mile 15.

The officer claimed the vehicle’s insurance had expired and refused her a call to the car rental company to verify details. He threatened to arrest and hold her in custody until the following Monday when the court reopened.

He then offered a way out: he could make it all go away for a donation toward his ‘steak dinner’ and added, “I cannot say, it is up to you.”

Cowed, they handed over the money and he let them go.

Amador first claimed that he had found the money while urinating at a lamppost, then in the bush, before finally confessing to the shakedown.

But he testified in open court that he had found the money when he went to urinate, and that everybody was “lying on him.” However, he could not explain why he did not report the matter to fellow police. The Crown tendered the original US$100 note taken from the complainant as evidence in the case.

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