125 tons of sugar theft from BSI

Police have detained three persons pending investigation of a large-scale theft of sugar belonging to Belize Sugar Industries (BSI) that was destined for export.

The sugar producer only last month reported a successful season with 114,536 tons of sugar milled from 1,070,128 tons of cane processed at its Tower Hill factory.

But police report that according to BSI’s chief of security at the Belize City storage office, Linberth Seguro, 39, some 125 tons of raw sugar valued at $125,000 was apparently stolen from various barges docked at Drowned Caye, the company’s storage point located 5 miles east of Belize City.

A BSI spokesman told Amandala this evening that the sugar was “raw” (that is, not subjected to special refining processes to make special kinds of sugar for specific uses), and destined for the European Union (EU) market in which Belize has sold for most of the time in which it has grown sugar cane and sold sugar and molasses.

When we asked how the loss would affect BSI, he said that the industry would lose potential revenue from planned sales in the “most lucrative” European market; as the sugar will not reach its planned destination, it hurts the industry in a time when it continues its rebound from a series of dismal years.

According to the company spokesman, they have not fully determined either the exact time period of the thefts, or the exact tonnage of the sugar stolen. They are in the process of reconciling the lost amount and continue to cooperate with police and the Port Authority in their investigations.

The spokesman would not comment on the record to Amandala about the relationship of the three persons detained by police, if any, to BSI, saying that because the investigation is active, he would not want to prejudice it. Police say that the Belize City residence of one of the accused was searched and a half sack of raw sugar and empty sacks were found.

source: amandala