A Belizean man who paid for a prostitute with counterfeit pesos in Quintana Roo is in a Mexican jail for falsification of Mexican currency.  Manuel Eduardo Martinez, a Belizean national of Corozal, was jailed along with his alleged Mexican accomplice 39-year-old Javier Martinez Vidal.  According to El Diario De Quintana Roo newspaper, the pair was busted last Wednesday at the Hotel Ucum located on Avenidas Hereos and Mahat Magandi in Quintana Roo. 

The two checked into the hotel the night before and paid for the room with counterfeit pesos.  That night they engaged the services of a prostitute.  They had

Rosa Maria made a lot of noise about it, Mexican media report that in fact she created uproar, because after all the men had already had sex with the prostitute and they were attempting to pay with counterfeit pesos.  So she called the Mexican State Police who arrived and pounced on Manuel Martinez and Javier Vidal.  They searched the room and found a large stash of counterfeit pesos.  It took some time for Mexican State Police investigators to tally but when they were done, they had unearthed  98 two hundred pesos bills, 36 five hundred pesos bills, 4 Belizean five dollar bills, and 1 twenty Belizean dollar bill.  That is about thirty six thousand pesos which is roughly seven thousand Belize dollars.  The bills were noted to have been printed on a high quality printer but had no hologram or security strip.

Manuel Martinez and Javier Vidal were detained and interrogated and broke under pressure.  The Belizean Javier Vidal confessed and pointed the finger at his Mexican accomplice Manuel Martinez as the mastermind.  Under further questioning, Martinez admitted to buying the counterfeit currency from a person known to him only as Jose Luis from the Corozal Free Zone.  

He pointed the finger to the mystery Jose Luis and stuck to it, telling Mexican State Police that he paid the one Jose Luis four thousand Belize dollars in exchange for the package of counterfeit pesos.  He was unable or unwilling to give Mexican State Police any details about the Jose Luis or even how much pesos he received in return for the four thousand Belize dollars he paid.  He was busted with the thirty six thousand pesos.  The duo admitted in interrogations that they had already spent a great deal of the money on transportation and food at a fair in Chetumal.  The men were detained at the Centro de Readaptacion Social in Chetumal pending charges of falsification of Mexican currency.  It is punishable by at least 15 years in a Mexican Federal Prison. 

It is worth noting that Javier Martinez Vidal may be the alias of Francisco Javier Martinez and Miguel “Pancho” Urbina who was charged for the December 2008 plot to invade the Jose Shoman family compound on the Northern Highway and murder the family.  He was the alleged mastermind behind the plot and he, along with five others, was charged with a slew of criminal charges including conspiracy to commit murder and weapon possession charges.  He was granted bail on September 1 in the amount of five thousand dollars.  He met bail in October and had been keeping a low profile since.