Where did the weed edibles come from?

With a public health crisis declared yesterday, our newsroom anticipated an official press conference today, involving officials from the national security, health and education sectors.  It turns out, however, that there was no press conference, rather, only a zoom interview with Police Minister, Kareem Musa.  Minister Musa’s 30-minute interview pretty much laid out what the investigators had found out, and where the blame is being laid.  

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “I spoke with the Commissioner of Police a few minutes ago. The samples have been taken to the forensic lab and I’m told that we should have the results from the forensic lab later on today. The civilian exhibit keeper is currently detained by police pending this investigation because as you would imagine this might not just result in his termination if it is that the investigation leads in that particular direction that he in fact discarded the edibles but it can lead also to criminal charges. We can look at possibly negligent harm as a charge that can be imposed and so I don’t want to comment too much on it because it is at the investigation stage pending the results from the forensic analyst so like I said that should be coming later on today. I am extremely disappointed in the actions of this particular exhibit keeper because he has been employed with the department for the last ten years and so it cannot be that he is not aware of that procedures that should be followed when discarding substances that are held as exhibits. For one this is an active investigation that was awaiting results from the forensics department and so it doesn’t matter what you are smelling inside your exhibit room you have no authority to then take it upon yourself without consulting the prosecutor, without consulting the Commissioner of Police and then to discard potential evidence in a criminal case and so that definitely is very concerning and like I said that could result in subsequent charges for this officer because the procedure normally is that you must first consult the head of department, the commander, and in this case the commander of prosecutions is Ms. Alifa Elrington. Ms. Elrington then writes to the Commissioner of Police who can then give the authority to have the material evidence discarded if it is the case has been concluded or for whatever reason they no longer need a particular exhibit and so the commissioner would send in a team to assess whether an item that has been confiscated should be destroyed and should be properly destroyed through an incinerator not by just discarding it at the dump site. And so that by itself has raised serious concern for us. The exhibit keeper has been placed  on administrative leave pending like I said the outcome of this investigation which should take no more in my opinion than two or three days to conclude and thereafter action will be taken.”

So far, we know that the exhibit keeper is detained after disposing the tainted sweets without going through the proper procedures.  The question that many has been asking is, ‘where did the sweets come from?”  According to Minister Musa, those sweets were handed over to the Police by officials at the Customs Department.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries: “It is an issue that originated as I understand it with the Customs Department who turned over the suspected cannabis I think at the point of entry it was classified as suspected cannabis edibles turned it over to the Anti Narcotics Unit who thereafter turned it over to the exhibit keeper. While it was that the edibles were being tested at the forensics labs that particular test had not returned as yet and as I understand it the civilian exhibit keeper, because I know we’re saying it was a police exhibit keeper but it’s actually a civilian employed by the Belize Police Department, took the decision of discarding the product that was confiscated by the Customs Department and as I understand it he is saying to the police that he discarded it because of the scent that it was giving off within the exhibit room. And so again a very tragic and unforeseeable chain of events that then transpired after that because as I understand it he discarded it at the dump on the western highway at which point individuals who were at the dump site found the discarded material and thereafter took it to the children and sold it to the children at the school.”