British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie appeared before a Florida court Friday on drug trafficking and money-laundering related charges, and he will remain in custody.
Fahie, according to Reuters news agency, and BVI Port Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard both appeared via Zoom before Judge Jonathan Goodman of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida “dressed in what appeared to be prison uniforms”.
According to the media report, Goodman scheduled a pre-trial detention hearing for Wednesday, 4 May, and a preliminary hearing for 13 May.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, in a brief statement issued Friday afternoon, addressed the report and Fahie’s arrest.
“The arrest yesterday of the Premier of the British Virgin Islands on charges related to drugs trafficking and money laundering is extremely concerning and underlines the need for urgent action,” she said.
Truss said that the report, published Friday, shows clearly that “substantial legislative and constitutional change” is required to restore the standards of governance that the people of the British Virgin Islands are entitled to.
Truss pointed out that in January 2021, the UK set out “significant concerns about the deteriorating state of governance” in the British Virgin Islands, as well as the potential vulnerability of the islands to serious organised crime.
The UK government, she said, supported the then-governor’s decision to launch an independent inquiry into governance of the territory.
“I have instructed the Minister for Overseas Territories to travel to the Territory immediately to speak to the Governor and key stakeholders. We will then announce a clear path forward. The Overseas Territories are a core part of the UK family. The UK Government is committed to the security and wellbeing of the people of the British Virgin Islands,” she added.
Original story: The premier of the British Virgin Islands agreed to help smuggle cocaine potentially worth up to US$1 billion through the islands’ ports in exchange for a 12% cut, according to US federal court documents.
Andrew Fahie is scheduled to appear in court in Florida today, 29 April, amid allegations he agreed to participate in a plot involving a Mexican drug cartel, Middle Eastern militants and Colombian cocaine shipments.
The leader of the British Overseas Territory is said to have agreed to ensure the safe passage of cocaine shipments – hidden in buckets of paint – through the port of Tortola in exchange for a cut of the profits when the drugs were sold in the United States.
Fahie, BVI Port Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard and her son Kadeem were also arrested at the Opa Locka Executive Airport following a six-month sting operation.
Acting BVI Premier Natalio Wheatley addressed the BVI public in a televised statement Thursday night saying that other ministers of Government have spoken with Premier Fahie or Maynard and “we call for them to be afforded due process in the US courts of law.”
The premier was recorded negotiating the details of the deal with an informant who posed as a member of the Sinaloa cartel, the court documents indicate.
Fahie, 51, was arrested at a private airfield in Miami on Thursday after apparently agreeing to accept an initial cash payment of $500,000 from an undercover agent and a “confidential source”, according to allegations set out in an affidavit from a Drug Enforcement Agency agent, which forms the basis of the criminal complaint filed in the US District Court in Miami.
“Why am I getting arrested? I don’t have any money or drugs,” Fahie is alleged to have stated.
All three are facing charges of conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to launder money.
The BVI delegation was ostensibly in Florida for a cruise convention.
But the affidavit indicates they were actually negotiating the final details of a multi-million dollar drug trafficking and money laundering plot.
Fahie was recorded on tape at a meeting with the DEA’s confidential source – who claimed to be a member of the Sinaloa drug cartel – at a private home in Tortola earlier this month, according to the document.
“During the meeting, the confidential source told Fahie that he was employed by people in Mexico, and requested use of the ports of Tortola for free passage of 3,000 kilograms of cocaine at a time,” the affidavit states.
“That cocaine would come from Colombia to BVI, then to Puerto Rico, and then on to Miami and New York.
“The cocaine would be packaged in construction material, in five-kilogram buckets of waterproofing paint.”
Fahie calculates his cut
According to the complaint the source told Fahie that the cocaine could be produced in Colombia for $350-$400 a kilo and sold in Miami and New York for between $26,000 and $32,000. He offered Fahie a 12% cut of the final price for helping the cocaine pass undetected through BVI ports.
“Fahie pulled out a calculator, and ran 3,000 (kilos) times $26,000 (Miami price per kilo). The total was $78 million. Fahie then calculated that 10% of $78 million would be $7.8 million,” the affidavit states.
They agreed to a test run of 3,000 kilos followed by four months of similar loads coming through “two or three times a month”, according to the document.
The total amount of cocaine the premier and his accomplices agreed to allow to pass through the BVI adds up to more than a billion US dollars, based on the maximum amount of shipments at the top price stated in the document.
Fahie’s 12% cut could have been worth more than $100 million if all the shipments had gone through as planned.
The source also offered to send separate shipments of low-purity ‘brown’ cocaine to enable the BVI premier to conduct seizures and divert attention from the higher quality product that was passing through undetected. Fahie “loved this idea”, the court document states.
“In addition to the drug transports, the CS (confidential source) proposed they could organize ‘seizures’ of bad drugs and money by Fahie in the BVI, so that they could avoid suspicion, and make it look like Fahie was fighting drug trafficking. Fahie laughed and said the CS had thought of everything.”
The source also agreed to help fund Fahie’s re-election campaign and asked that he be allowed to have a hand in choosing his successor, the complaint alleges.
Hezbollah links
According to the affidavit, in October last year a DEA confidential source held several meetings in BVI with the group of self-proclaimed operatives of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah who said they had business ties to South Florida and the Middle East.
During those meetings in Tortola, the source requested the group’s assistance to use the island as a temporary storage port for cocaine from Colombia, transported via boat and destined for the US, the court documents say, adding a member of the group claimed to “own” Maynard, the managing director of the BVI port and helped set up a meeting through her son, Kadeem.
At that meeting, in St. Thomas, the court documents claim, the source said he was a member of the Sinaloa cartel and they wanted the Maynards’ help to move thousands of kilos of cocaine from Colombia through Tortola to Puerto Rico destined for Miami and then on to New York.
According to the complaint, the source said there was no wish to import the drugs to Tortola for sale, and that no cocaine would leave the container while in port. Only protection and safe passage for the container for a 24-48 hour period were required, until the window would open when it could be taken to Puerto Rico.
Maynard said she could assist with legal paperwork and licences, the affidavit states. As part of the deal, the source offered a percentage of the cocaine sales from the US, and asked how he could get the money back to them in BVI.
Maynard responded, “What we do is set up shell companies,” the affidavit indicates.
“At the end of the meeting, the CS provided Maynard with a bag containing $10,000 in United States currency, saying it was a gesture of good faith. Maynard responded that she would start her ‘homework’ tomorrow.”
Though messages on WhatsApp, they confirmed Fahie’s interest. The premier was referred to as ‘head coach’ in these coded exchanges, the complaint states.
Enter the premier
The document indicates Maynard and her son, in a recorded telephone conversation, said the premier was interested in working with the source and needed an up-front payment of $500,000 and would handle the ports and airports.
A 7 April meeting was set up with the premier in Tortola.
At that meeting, Fahie, Maynard and the source explained the drug transport plan, saying the cocaine would be packaged in construction material, in five-kilogram buckets of waterproofing paint, according to the court papers.
That material would not test positive for cocaine, but the cocaine would later be extracted over the course of about four days in either Puerto Rico or Miami, the source said.
At this point, the source indicates, Fahie, pulled out a calculator and worked out his cut.
“Fahie agreed to allow the CS to use the ports to ship his cocaine, and said that Maynard had the licenses for the companies the [source] would need,” the affidavit stated.
It adds that Fahie agreed to that 3,000 kilo test run to Miami, which would be followed by four months of 3,000 kilo loads coming through the island two or three times a month. Then, they would take a break for a number of months before resuming again.
At the end of that meeting, the source, provided Fahie with $20,000 in cash, saying, “This is a good faith gift, to seal that we have an agreement,” the document states.
How the bust went down
Before leaving, the complaint states Fahie told the source he needed $83,000 in cash to pay back a debt he owed to someone in Senegal and the source agreed to help.
The trio, Fahie, Maynard and the source, arranged to meet in Miami on 27 April 2022.
The arrangement was for the source to leave $700,000 cash – $500,000 for the premier and $200,000 for the port director and her son – in a private jet at Opa Locka airport, that would be retrieved by Maynard and an unknown individual on 28 April to be flown back to BVI, according to the court papers.
They also say it was agreed that Fahie would fly to join the source in St. Martin on 2 May, where they would meet the man from Senegal and pay back the debt.
Following the meeting, Maynard’s son and the source continued communication regarding a side deal to bring in 60 kilograms of cocaine a week for sale in BVI, the document sets out. Further, they coordinated the arrival of the private jet with the $700,000 from Miami to the BVI.
Maynard’s son said he had control of officials at the airport, and confirmed that they would allow the plane to land, the complaint alleges.
On Wednesday evening, 27 April, Fahie met the source and an undercover agent in a Miami hotel.
According to the DEA agent’s statement, “Fahie asked the CS to start with a prayer, and then immediately began to speak about the money that he needed to pay the man from Senegal, during their upcoming meeting in St. Martin.”
Asked why he owed the man money, Fahie said he had “fixed some political issues” for him, the court document says.
It adds that on 28 April, the source and the undercover agent collected the premier from his residence in South Florida and took him to the plane destined for the BVI and showed him the designer shopping bags containing the $700,000 for Fahie and Maynard.
“The (undercover agent) explained that the money would be packaged in a suitcase like Fahie had requested, but they wanted him to see it first in person to confirm it was paid. Shortly thereafter, the parties exited the plane, and Fahie was subsequently arrested.”
Later that day, Maynard was picked up and taken to the same private jet she was shown the $700,000, including $200,000 as her payment. She was arrested as she stepped off the plane.
- Additional reporting by James Whittaker
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