Authorities in Belize have announced a major breakthrough in their nationwide campaign against illegal gun proliferation, with six people now facing criminal charges following two separate coordinated law enforcement operations carried out across the southern and western regions of the country.
The first operation unfolded in the early hours of the operation date in Punta Gorda, a coastal town in southern Belize’s Toledo District. According to official statements from Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith, a serving Staff Officer with the Belize Police Department, an on-duty officer conducting routine anti-crime patrol spotted two men riding a motorcycle through the municipality at approximately 1:25 a.m. When the officer attempted to approach the pair to question their activity, the driver immediately accelerated away, triggering a high-stakes late-night pursuit through residential streets. During the chase, 23-year-old Rushan Vairez, a resident of Punta Gorda Town, fell from the motorcycle and tried to escape on foot before officers could detain him. A subsequent search of Vairez’s backpack uncovered a loaded 9-millimeter pistol, with a magazine holding 18 live rounds of matching ammunition. Vairez has since been formally charged with two offenses: illegal possession of an unlicensed firearm and illegal possession of unlicensed ammunition.
The second operation targeted a private residence in Unitedville, a community located in western Belize’s Cayo District, carried out by the department’s Special Patrol Unit on June 2. During the planned raid, officers recovered a .22-caliber pistol loaded with five live rounds of ammunition. Five local residents — Calvin Garcia, Sydney Forbes, Kareem Garcia, Bernadine Myers and Kevin Trapp — were taken into custody at the scene, and all five now face the same pair of illegal weapons charges as Vairez.
The coordinated arrests come as Belize law enforcement scales up aggressive anti-gun operations across every district of the country, part of a broader push to root out illegal weapons from communities and reverse a recent upward trend in gun-related violent crime. This report is adapted from a transcribed evening television newscast covering national public safety developments.