British Virgin Islands Premier Detained on Drug Charges

Andrew A. Fahie, the British Virgin Islands (BVI)’s premier, was arrested Thursday by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents at Miami-Opa-Locka Executive Airport and charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and money laundering, according to multiple press reports.

Fahie, who doubles as the B.V.I.’s minister of tourism, was detained with Oleanvine Maynard, the British Virgin Islands’ port authority managing director, after meeting with undercover DEA agents posing as cocaine traffickers, according to a Miami Herald report.

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The BVI officials were in Miami for the Seatrade Cruise Global conference and traveled to the airport Thursday to “check out” an alleged shipment of $700,000 aboard an airplane that they believed was headed for the British Virgin Islands, according to the Herald report.

The DEA agents, posing as members of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, told Fahie and Maynard the money was a payoff to allow the cartel’s future cocaine loads to be transported through the Caribbean territory to the United States, said authorities. Fahie and Maynard, who are being held at Miami’s Federal Detention Center, were scheduled to have their first federal court appearances Friday.

Fahie and Maynard were charged with conspiring to import more than five kilograms of cocaine into the United States and commit money laundering. A DEA criminal complaint and affidavit were expected to be filed Thursday in Miami federal court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

John Rankin, the BVI’s British territorial governor, confirmed the arrests in a statement, saying “I realize this will be shocking news for people in the territory and I would call for calm at this time.”

Fahie, a former educator and businessman who served as a BVI legislator for more than 20 years, was elected as the territory’s premier and minister of tourism in February 2019. At the time he said he was “committing to being laser-focused on tourism as a driver of economic development in these Virgin Islands.”