ROAD TOWN (CMC):
British Virgin Islands (BVI) Governor John Rankin has urged citizens to remain calm following the arrest of Premier Andrew Fahie in the United States on conspiracy to import cocaine and money laundering charges.
Rankin said that he would indicate the next steps forward on “this urgent issue” today.
In the meantime, Deputy Premier Natalio Wheatley, who had been acting as premier of the British Overseas Territory in the absence of Fahie – who was in Miami to attend Seatrade Cruise Global, the largest cruise industry gathering in the world – will continue to do so.
“I realise this will be shocking news for people in the territory, and I would call for calm at this time,” Rankin said in a statement yesterday after Fahie and BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard was detained by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents at a Miami airport.
The Miami Herald reported that the government officials were arrested when they met with two undercover DEA agents, who we’re pretending to be members of a Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
According to the US publication, Fahie and Maynard went to the airport to see an alleged load of US$700,000 in cash after the undercover agents told them the money was a payoff for allowing the cartel’s future cocaine loads to be transported through the BVI to the US.
Maynard’s son, Kadeem Maynard, was also arrested on Thursday in connection with the case, but not in Miami.