By Belize Live News Staff: Former government minister Elvin Penner has found himself at the center of a national security investigation after military officials reportedly caught him removing explosive materials from a restricted Belize Defence Force (BDF) training site.
The incident unfolded at the Baldy Beacon demolition site in Mountain Pine Ridge, where the BDF’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit and experts from the Organization of American States (OAS) have been conducting a massive operation to destroy over 1,500 unexploded ordnances (UXOs) recovered across the country.
According to Ministry of Defense and Border Security CEO Francis Usher, the joint BDF-OAS team had completed roughly 90% of the scheduled detonations when a fast-moving brush fire broke out in the area. Driven by intense heat and heavy winds, the fire forced emergency response procedures.
Amid the chaos, BDF sentries spotted Penner inside the restricted blast zone. Military personnel intercepted the former United Democratic Party (UDP) minister and allegedly discovered a cache of live military components inside his pickup truck, including charging wires and white phosphorus, an incendiary substance used in controlled detonations. Alarming authorities further, the explosives were reportedly found sitting directly on top of a fuel container in the vehicle.
Penner, who owns property in the immediate vicinity, strongly denied any criminal intent. He claimed he entered the zone strictly to monitor the wildfire, which he believed was encroaching dangerously on unexploded materials that he assumed the military had abandoned.
Penner publicly criticized the BDF, claiming the site lacked basic safety markers, warning tape, or checkpoints. “Somebody could have driven right into that explosive… Not a piece of yellow ribbon tape, not a piece of red ribbon tape, not any sign,” Penner argued, defending his actions as an effort to prevent a wider disaster.
The high-stakes confrontation has also reignited an explosive secondary dispute over land ownership. The Ministry of Defense revealed it is investigating how Penner and a relative managed to secure at least 14 land leases within and adjacent to the active military training grounds between 2011 and 2012, which were quietly converted into full property titles in September 2020 just before the general election.
While CEO Usher indicated the government is looking into legal avenues to reclaim the land, Penner rejected any allegations of corruption, countering that the BDF has been illegally encroaching on privately-owned tracts of land for years without formal training agreements.
Police investigations into the unauthorized removal of the military explosives remain active.
