As we go to press, public speculation is growing that Detective Constable Jermaine Mangar is just a casualty of an elaborate set up by fellow officers in a conspiracy which may lead all the way up to the top of the department. That speculation grew legs with the revelation this week that Mr. Barrow and his Commissioner of Police Mr. Jeffries may not have been exactly forthcoming at a press conference last week Thursday. At that media briefing, the leader of the nation played judge, jury and executioner when he announced that Mr. Mangar was the criminal mastermind behind every single robbery in recent memory, including the Scotiabank Spanish Lookout heist which left one man dead. Mr. Barrow assured business owners that they could sleep easy as there would be no more robberies because of the arrest of Mr. Mangar, and other disciplinary actions to come within the department.
Just days after, the Police Press Officer stated unequivocally that this was not the case, that Mr. Mangar was in no way connected to the Scotiabank heist. At around the same time early this week, the man in charge of the bank robbery investigation, Senior Superintendent Paul Wade, backed up the words of the Police Press Officer, stating that Mr. Mangar was certainly not a suspect in the Scotiabank heist. To add further credence to their claims, when Mr. Mangar appeared in the Court to be charged, there were absolutely no charges related to the abundance of robberies that the Prime Minister claimed that he masterminded. Instead, Mr. Mangar was charged with conspiracy to commit a robbery and attempted robbery in relation to a so-called plan to rob Chon Saan Palace in Belize City.
The sequence of events has left the nation a little shocked and very concerned at what is at best a critical lack of communication within the department and at worst a setup and cover-up of immense proportions within the department. Nobody has quite figured out the role the Prime Minister played in this drama, but it surely has not helped his already ailing credibility.
The common-law wife of Detective Constable Jermaine Mangar, Cassie Young, is convinced that her husband was the target of a setup with the participation of players including Director of the CYDP Edward Broaster, Senior Superintendent Blackett and other senior officers within the department. She claims that the entire thing stank from the very beginning, when her husband was arrested. On Wednesday night, March 31, Usher told the Belize Times, her home was searched by officers including Broaster and Blackett. Strangely enough, Miss Usher claims that also on the scene were owner of Chon Saan Palace Lee Mark Chang and the driver of the Prime Minister. According to Usher, they had no warrant but still ransacked the house. She claims that Mr. Broaster tried to get her to leave the house so he could continue searching but she refused, since she was afraid that they would plant something in the house.
The behavior of the police during the search has Miss Usher more convinced than ever that it is all a setup and there is no real evidence against her husband.
Since that time, said Miss Usher, she has been refused permission to visit her husband. She told us that she was not even allowed to give her husband food and clothing while he was at the Police Station over the weekend. It was only when she visited the Ombudswoman Cynthia Pitts and begged for intervention that she was able to leave the food and clothing for Mangar.
It is unclear at this time why UDP political hopeful Lee Mark Chang was involved in the search of Mangar's home. We are equally confused about the presence of the Prime Minister's driver.
On Tuesday, Mangar was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and attempted robbery. Allegations from those who masterminded his arrest are that they detained a criminal who then turned and fingered Mangar as the head criminal brain, and claimed that a plan was afoot to rob Chon Saan Palace. Reportedly a sting was orchestrated and Mangar took the bait and the rest is history. When Mangar appeared in Court he was refused bail and remanded on the grounds that the attempted robbery was to be committed with a firearm. Attorneys contacted by the Belize Times claim that this is ludicrous, since there was never an actual robbery but only an allegation by a criminal turned police stooge that there was to be a robbery.
It is a convoluted, twisted sequence of events which leaves a sour taste in the mouths of many Belizeans. The Police Department has lost the confidence of the people and something seems to be distinctly off with the Mangar situation. The Prime Minister's involvement in the matter has certainly not served to make things better, but only to highlight the deficiencies in the Ministry of National Security and in the Police Department.
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Source: The Belize Times
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