Belize and US forces destroy 52,800 marijuana plants in October drive
Belizean forces with US Joint Task Force-Bravo helicopters destroyed more than 52,800 marijuana plants plus seeds and processed marijuana across Belize from 29 September to 3 October 2014, with an estimated street value over $27 million.
Belizean soldiers and police, lifted by two US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and a CH-47 Chinook from Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras, swept marijuana fields across Belize from 29 September to 3 October 2014.[1]The Belize Defence Force, Coast Guard, Anti-Drug Unit and Mobile Interdiction Team destroyed more than 52,800 marijuana plants, 10 pounds of seeds and 1,000 pounds (about 454 kg) of processed marijuana, which the report estimated at more than $27 million on the street.[1]
The operation continued the partnership between the United States and Belize against criminal groups working in the country.[1]An Amandala editorial quoting its 22 October report of the same drive confirms the two Blackhawks, the Chinook and the seed and processed-marijuana seizures, but puts the haul higher at more than 58,000 plants worth $54 million.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Plants destroyed
52,800
of it destroyed
453.592 kg
Value (official estimate)
USD 27,000,000
Agencies
Joint Task Force-Bravo; Belize Defence Force; Belize Coast Guard; Belize Police Anti-Drug Unit; Belize Mobile Interdiction Team
Disputed count: an Amandala editorial quoting its 22 October story puts the same drive at more than 58,000 plants and $54 million, so this report uses the Ambergris Today figures.
The reports do not name the districts where the fields lay.
No arrests were reported from the operation.
No verifiable photo of the October operation could be recovered from the opened sources.
A police drone recon in a remote part of Toledo District found cannabis drying under a zinc-roofed structure in a corn field and a second cultivation site nearby. Officers uprooted and burned 86 plants, three to seven feet tall.
Belize Police Department officers destroyed a marijuana plantation in the Rhaburn Ridge area, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams said in September 2024. Neither the size of the plantation nor any arrests were reported, and the announcement came alongside cocaine operations in northern Belize.
Belize police found a plantation of 875 marijuana plants in Orange Walk District on the morning of 16 September 2024 and uprooted and burned the crop. No one was present at the site and no arrests were reported.
Belizean forces with US Joint Task Force-Bravo destroyed more than 50,000 marijuana plants across Belize during Operation CARACOL on 26-30 October 2015. US Army helicopters provided airlift, ladder training and medical-evacuation cover while Belizean teams identified and eliminated the fields.
