Belize: Marijuana gummies ingested by children were imported
Belize’s Police Commissioner Chester Williams says the gummies that were laced with marijuana, resulting in a number of people, including a five-year-old child being rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), had been discovered in a barrel by Customs.
The Belize government has ordered a “full and thorough” investigation that is expected 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 said in the statement.
Williams said the Anti Narcotics Unit (ANU) retrieved the gummies, and samples were taken and sent to the National Forensic [Science] Services for analysis because “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 return of the results that were requested from the lab.”
But Williams said that sometime last week, basis briefing, “the exhibit keeper decided to dispose of these gummies by putting them in a garbage trailer that is kept inside the Queen Street Police Station compound.
“After that, 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, likewise, or the yardman, also dug into the boxes, and he too took some of those gummies, as well as other persons who were at the dumpsite at that particular moment.”
The Police Commissioner said that the gummies were then brought back into the city by different persons and were later sold.
He said while the police have not yet received the result from the National Forensic Science Services testing, he has since been informed by the director of the National Forensic [Science] Services “that the test on the gummies has concluded and it is confirmed to contain cannabis”.
However, Williams acknowledged that a sting operation to nab the person believed to be a police officer who has been on interdiction since March 2021, to whom the barrel was the intended recipient, did not happen because of the media reports on the sickness associated with those who ate the treats.
“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.
“But because of the newscast, we can no longer do that. Secondly, no one had gone to claim the barrel and …to import something from the States in a person’s name; it would require more than just your name on that item for you to be prosecuted; it would need to have gone further.
“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 once that would have been done, then we would have created the nexus between the person who comes and claims and the barrel because that neurocritical.”
Williams said in light of what had transpired, the police have been looking for a person of interest to interview him.
“We don’t know what the answer will be, he will say whatever, but we will still interview him to see what, if anything, can be ascertained from him as it relates to the importation of those gummies,” he added.
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