Powers to search and obtain evidence

(1) A member of the Belize Police Department or other person authorised in that behalf by a general or special Order of the Commissioner of Police shall for the purposes of the execution of this Act, have power to enter the premises of a person carrying on business as a producer or supplier of any controlled drugs and to demand the production of, and to inspect, any books or documents relating to dealings in any such drugs and to inspect any stocks of any such drugs. (2) If a member of the Belize Police Department has reasonable grounds to suspect that any person is in possession of a controlled drug in contravention of this Act, or of any regulations made thereunder, the member of the Belize Police Department may, subject to sub-section (3)– (a) search that person, and detain him for the purpose of searching him; (b) search any ship, vessel, boat, aircraft, vehicle or other means of conveyance of any description in which the member of the Belize Police Department suspects that the drug may be found, or which has been used or employed in the commission or attempted commission of any such offence, and for that purpose require the person in control of the ship, vessel, boat, aircraft, vehicle or other means of conveyance of any description to stop it; (c) seize and detain for the purpose of proceedings under this Act– (i) anything found in the course of the search which appears to the member of the Belize Police Department to be evidence of an offence under this Act; and (ii) any ship, vessel, boat, aircraft, vehicle or other means of conveyance, stopped under paragraph (b) in pursuance of his 37 (3) Nothing in sub-section (2), shall derogate from any power of search or any power to seize or detain property which is otherwise exercisable by a member of the Belize Police Department. (4) If a magistrate in the case of paragraph (a), or a Judge of the Supreme Court in the case of paragraph (b), is satisfied by information on oath that there is reasonable ground for suspecting– (a) that any controlled drug is, in contravention of this Act, in the possession of a person on any premises or in any place; or (b) that a document directly or indirectly relating to, or connected with, a transaction or dealing which was, or an intended transaction or dealing which would if carried out be, an offence under this Act, or in the case of a transaction or dealing carried out or intended to be carried out in a place outside Belize, an against the of a corresponding law in force in that place, is in the possession of a person on any premises or in any place; he may issue a warrant authorising any member of the Belize Police Department at any time or times within one month from the date of issue of the warrant, to enter, if need be by force, the premises or place named in the warrant, and to search such premises or place and any persons found therein and, if there is reasonable ground for suspecting that an offence under this Act has been committed in relation to any controlled drugs found on the premises or place or in the possession of any such person, or that a document so found is such a document as is mentioned in paragraph (b), to seize and detain those drugs or that document, as the case may be. (5) A person commits an offence if he38 (a) intentionally obstructs a person in the exercise of his powers under this section; (b) being the person in control of the ship, vessel, boat, aircraft, vehicle or other means of conveyance of any description, fails to stop it when required to do so by a member of the Belize Police Department under sub-section (2)(b); (c) being a person being conveyed in a ship, vessel, boat, aircraft, vehicle or other means of conveyance of any description, prevents or intimidates the person operating the ship, vessel, aircraft, vehicle or other means of conveyance of any description from stopping when required to do so by a member of the Belize Police Department under sub-section (2)(b); (d) without the permission of the member of the Belize Police Department concerned, leaves a ship, vessel, boat, aircraft, vehicle or other means of conveyance of any description which has been stopped by a member of the Belize Police Department under sub-section (2)(b); (e) conceals from a person acting in the exercise of his powers under sub-section (1) any such books, documents, stocks or drugs as are mentioned in that sub-section; or (f) without reasonable excuse, proof of which shall lie on him, fails to produce any such books or documents as are so mentioned where their production is demanded by a person in the exercise of his powers under that sub-section. 39 (6) Any person acting under the warrant granted under sub- section (4), shall not be liable to any suit or other proceeding for seizing or detaining any of the articles which he is entitled to seize or detain by virtue of the said warrant.