January 20, 2011

http://www.lovefm.com/ndisplay.php?nid=13261

Two men and a woman charged with money laundering and failure to declare sixty thousand two hundred and forty U-S dollars were acquitted of the charges today. It was alleged that on April 2, 2010, the three, thirty-seven year old Sydney Ellis, thirty-one year old Douglas Stringer and twenty three year old Julia McCord, entered Belize through Mexico in a brown Expedition driven by Ellis. When the vehicle was stopped and searched at a police check point in Sandhill, fifty-seven thousand seven hundred and ninety US dollars was found in two rectangular boxes in a secret compartment under the vehicle. Also two thousand four hundred fifty US dollars was found in a knapsack in the vehicle. Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser said the only evidence the prosecution had regarding money laundering was the testimony of police superintendent Lincoln Hemsley who said Ellis confessed to him that he got the money from a Mexican national to give to a drug dealer in Belize. She said she found that portion of the evidence not to be true. She also said that there was no evidence against Stringer or McCord for any of the charges and that Elllis had signed for fifty seven thousand nine hundred seventy dollars and the charge was for sixty thousand two hundred forty dollars. The three defendants were represented by attorney Dickie Bradley. Counsel Mikhail Arguelles represented the FIU.