By Belize Live News Staff: The officer whose job is to police Orange Walk’s roads is now answering for what happened on one. Corporal Adriano Marin, head of the traffic branch at the Orange Walk Police Station, has been charged with five offences, among them driving under the influence, following a head-on collision on the Philip Goldson Highway that sent a woman to hospital.
The Belize Police Department reports that the crash happened late Thursday night, July 9, 2026, around 11:00 p.m., between miles 64 and 65 near San Pablo Village. A Mitsubishi pickup driven by 47-year-old Graciana Briceño Nah, travelling from Corozal toward Orange Walk Town, met a vehicle whose lights suddenly swung into her lane at a curve. She swerved right, but could not escape the impact, which tore into the left front of her truck. The police report identifies her as a sister of the Prime Minister. She suffered an arm injury classified as harm and was taken to hospital by relatives.
The oncoming vehicle, a Ford Ranger, ended its journey in a roadside ditch. Behind the wheel, according to police, was Marin, 53, who appeared to be highly under the influence of alcohol or drugs and had crossed into the opposing lane before the collision. He emerged without injury. In a detail that will not be lost on anyone, the traffic chief’s own pickup had not been licensed since May 2024.
Marin agreed to give a urine sample, which was split under standard procedure, one portion sealed as evidence, the other handed to him for independent testing. An hour later, asked for a second sample, he declined.
By Friday, investigators concluded Marin appeared to be at fault, and he was formally arrested and charged with negligent harm, driving without due care and attention, driving whilst under the influence of drinks or drugs, using an unlicensed motor vehicle, and failing to keep as close as possible to the right hand side of the road. A Justice of the Peace granted him bail of $1,000.
Credit is due on one point: the department charged its own senior traffic officer within a day, precisely the kind of even-handedness the public demands. From here, the matter belongs to the court, and Marin, like anyone facing charges, is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The lab analysis of the sample taken that night will now carry considerable weight.
