BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) — Police Commissioner Chester Williams has warned Belizeans to stop the habit of searching the coastline for drugs as the authorities continue their investigation into the murders of five fishermen, whose bodies were found dumped at sea over last weekend.

Police believe that the murder of boat captain Ernest Wills Senior, 49, his uncle, Winston Santos, 40, and 23-year-old nephew Travis Cooke, as well as 19-year-old Allyson Jones and Jamar Martinez, 21, may be linked to the illegal drugs trade.

The authorities recovered the bodies of Jones and Martinez last Saturday tied together in some mangroves behind Mapp Caye, four miles away from where the bodies of their relatives had been found with gunshot wounds to the head.

Williams, speaking on television here on Monday night, said that “I would want to emphasise to the Belizean people not to be combing the beaches or the waterways looking for these substance, and if it is that they should come across any of these packages that they report to the police or to the coast guard so that we can retrieve the substance and get it out of circulation.

“These things do come with a cost and sometimes the cost is your life,” he said.

Williams said that while additional forces were deployed to deal with the offshore illicit activities in the south, the police will now team up with the Belize Coast Guard to patrol the Belize City coastline.

“And while we received information of ‘wet drops’, we are focusing more on the south because we had received information that the wet drop was in south. We have deployed additional police officers to Dangriga and Placencia, as well as Riversdale, to be able to deal with the effects of it in the south, but it would seem as if some of it may have drifted this way.

“We had also heard of wet drops in north Ambergris Caye. When it is that it is difficult for them to land on land, they would drop the drugs somewhere in the sea and then those persons who are supposed to retrieve it, would go to the area and they’ll pick it up.

“But you will know that sometimes when it drops, the package or the bail or, however, it is may come apart. So while the collectors may get the large amount, some may go loose. And it is the one that goes loose that normally drifts along the shoreline.”

Meanwhile, the main opposition People’s United Party is expressing “concern” at the number of murders in the country over last weekend.

The party said that 10 murders were committed last weekend and so far this year “70 murders have been committed” as well as a number of people being reported missing and feared dead.

“Social partners and the Opposition are ready to work together with the prime minister and the minister of national security to formulate a real crime-fighting plan,” the Opposition said.

“Crime is an issue which should never be made political,” it added.