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The Premier of the British Virgin Islands, Andrew A. Fahie, and the Director of Ports of that territory, Oleanvine Maynard, were arrested Thursday in Miami, Florida, for alleged “cocaine smuggling and money laundering,” informed the Governor of the Caribbean archipelago, John Rankin.
The United States government informed the United Kingdom of this arrest “as part of the usual process followed when a British citizen is arrested abroad.”
Fahie and Maynard, who according to the Miami Herald newspaper were in South Florida participating in Seatrade Cruise Global, the cruise industry’s premier global event, were detained at Miami-Opa-Locka Executive Airport by undercover federal agents.
The senior British Virgin Islands officials were arrested after meeting with undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents posing as Mexican cocaine traffickers.
The two went to the airport Thursday morning to see a suspected $700,000 shipment on a plane they believed was destined for the British Virgin Islands, authorities told the Miami Herald.
The agents posed as members of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Fahie and Maynard are charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and money laundering and are due to appear in a Miami court Friday afternoon along with another detainee, the Herald said.
Kadeem Maynard was also arrested today in connection with the case, but not in Miami, authorities told the same newspaper.
Because the investigation is ongoing, Rankin said he had no further information about the arrest and could not comment further.
However, Rankin confirmed that the arrest was the result of a U.S. operation led by the DEA.
