Belize: Marijuana gummies ingested by children were imported
Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams says Customs found the marijuana-laced gummies in a barrel, sending many people, including a five-year-old child, to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH).
The Belize government has ordered a “full and thorough” inquiry to “determine the source of some sweet treats…that were ingested by a number of children and adults”.
“Initial information is that the treats were purchased from two individuals, who are now in police custody along with some recovered items,” the Office of the Prime Minister stated.
Williams said the Anti Narcotics Unit (ANU) recovered the gummies and sent samples to the National Forensic [Science] Services for processing since “we did not know then what those gummies were or what they represent.
“So, for us to have been sure, it was sent to the lab for testing and about three weeks ago, from what I was briefed yesterday, the boxes containing these gummies were taken to our national exhibit room in Belize City for safekeeping, pending the lab results that were requested.”
Williams added that based on his briefing, “the exhibit keeper decided to dispose of these gummies by way of putting them in a garbage trailer that is kept inside the Queen Street Police Station compound” sometime last week.
“The yardman at Queen Street took the trailer to the dumpsite at mile three on the [George Price Highway] and disposed of those gummies. But the garbage man, or yardman, also dug into the boxes and took some of those gummies, as did other people at the dumpsite.”
The Police Commissioner claimed other people brought the candies back into the city and sold them.
He stated the National Forensic Science Services director notified him “that the test on the gummies have concluded and it is confirmed to contain cannabis” even though the police have not yet gotten the results.
Williams confessed that a sting operation to apprehend the individual, thought to be a police officer who has been on interdiction since March 2021, to whom the barrel was intended did not happen due to media stories on the disease associated with the delicacies.
“The barrel came in and what we would normally do is that due to the fact that the content of the barrel, we believed it was laced with something,… it would have been placed back in the barrel and they would have done a sting operation, call whoever to come and pick up the barrel and see if they would have come.
The newscast prevents that. Second, no one had claimed the barrel, and to import something from the States under a person’s name would require more than simply your name on that object to be prosecuted.
“So we were hoping that perhaps someone, maybe (police officer) or someone on his behalf would have gone to Customs and claimed the barrel and the other contents because they had not known that Customs had received it and then we would have created the nexus between the person who comes and claims and the barrel, because that nexus is very important.”
Williams stated the police were seeking for a person of interest to question him after what happened.
“We don’t know what the answer is going to be, he will say whatever, but we will still go through the process of interviewing him to see what, if anything, can be ascertained from him as it relates to the importation of those gummies,” he continued.