MIAMI (AP) – The Prime Minister of the British Virgin Islands and the director of ports in the Caribbean were arrested on Thursday on charges of drug smuggling in South Florida, federal authorities said.
Prime Minister Andrew Alturo Fahi and Managing Director Olliwein Maynard were detained by agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at the Miami-Opa-Loca Executive Airport and charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to launder money, according to a criminal complaint. Maynard’s son, Kadim Maynard, is facing the same changes to the alleged scheme, according to records.
“Anyone involved in the importation of dangerous drugs into the United States will be held accountable, regardless of their position,” DEA Administrator Ann Milgram said in a statement. “Today is another example of the DEA’s determination to hold corrupt members of government accountable for using their positions of power to provide safe haven for drug traffickers and money laundering in return for their own financial and political gain.
Fahi and Oleanwein Maynard were at the airport to meet Mexican drug traffickers, who were in fact DEA undercover agents, to see a $ 700,000 in cash shipment that BVI officials expected to receive to aid cocaine smuggling from Columbia to Miami and New York, the complaint said.
A confidential DEA source had previously met with Maynard and her son after they were represented by a group of self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah task force, according to the complaint. After Fahie joined in, BVI officials agreed to allow smugglers to smuggle cocaine through the port of Tortola before moving on to the United States.
The governor of the British Virgin Islands, John Rankin, issued a statement explaining that the arrests in Florida on Thursday were not linked to a commission of inquiry issued last year on the territory. The investigation was aimed at focusing on governance and corruption, not a criminal investigation into drug trafficking, Rankin said in a statement posted online.
It is not known whether the commission found any alleged wrongdoing by Fahi or Maynard, but Rankin said he expects the results to be published urgently to avoid unnecessary speculation.
The British Virgin Islands, with a population of about 35,000, are a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, located east of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The governor is appointed by the queen, the supreme executive body of the territory, and acts on her behalf. The prime minister is the head of government and is elected in general elections along with the other members of the governing government.
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