Leaked Emails Reveal 70 Drug Planes Landed in Belize

At least 70 drug planes landed in Belize between 2020 and 2021, according to leaked emails from Mexico’s defense ministry. The flights, originating from airstrips near Maracaibo, Venezuela, formed part of a cocaine pipeline moving narcotics through Belize and into the United States.

American officials reportedly sent dozens of alerts to Mexican authorities, exposing Belize as a far more active player in regional narco trafficking than previously known. Nearly one aircraft landed every five days during that period, using remote airstrips in Belize as drop-off points before drugs were moved north.

The U.S. “air bridge” between Venezuela and Central America remains operational. Although law enforcement disrupted one network in 2020, flights resumed soon after, though at a lower frequency. Jesús Romero, a former U.S. naval officer who investigated these routes, said traffickers began using Belize as a “pressure valve” to avoid intense monitoring in Guatemala and Honduras.

The scale of the operations led Washington to officially designate Belize as a major drug transit country on September 15, 2020. That designation confirmed what the leaked documents now make clear—Belize was not merely a stopover, but a critical corridor in the flow of cocaine into the United States.