A protest was arranged for yesterday outside the Big Creek, Belize offices of Fyffes, the Dublin-headquartered banana distributor.

As reported by this newspaper earlier in the week, the company has stopped accepting supplies from the Mayan King farm after John Zabaneh, who is designated as a drugs lord by US authorities, was apparently acting as its spokesman.

Fyffes has designs on expanding its US business. Any perceived links to a business that is linked in turn to an associate of Mexican and Colombian cocaine cartels is a bit of a no-no for a foreign company with such aspirations.

Workers are upset by the sudden decision of Fyffes to cut ties with Mayan King, whose management now say they would try to convince the Irish company to conduct a phased withdrawal.