In a fresh push against the illegal drug trade in northern Belize, law enforcement officials have seized 12 grams of crack cocaine and taken three local residents into custody on drug trafficking charges. The bust, carried out at a residential property in San Jose Village, Orange Walk, is part of a broader nationwide crackdown on transnational and local criminal activity, authorities confirmed.
Following a targeted search of the residence, officers found the illicit controlled substance and immediately took the three suspects into custody: 41-year-old Arturo Oh, 39-year-old Iliana Angeles, and 29-year-old Gilda Guardado. All three have been jointly charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to supply, the formal charge for drug trafficking under Belizean law.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith, Staff Officer for the department, confirmed the details of the operation in an official statement. “Police have formally arrested and jointly charged forty-one-year-old Arturo Oh, thirty-nine-year-old Iliana Angeles, and twenty-nine-year-old Gilda Guardado, all of San Jose Village, Orange Walk, for the offense of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply to another, more commonly known as drug trafficking,” Smith said. “These charges followed police operation at the residence, which resulted in the discovery of twelve grams of crack.”
Law enforcement officials noted that this latest seizure is just one component of amplified, multi-front operations underway across the country. The ongoing campaign targets a wide range of criminal enterprises, from illegal firearms trafficking to narcotics distribution, as police work to dismantle organized criminal networks and improve community safety. This report is adapted from a transcript of an evening television news broadcast originally published online.