London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 22, 2025

BVI premier accused of cocaine trafficking granted bail in Miami

BVI premier accused of cocaine trafficking granted bail in Miami

Judge rejects prosecutors’ claim that Andrew Fahie, arrested in DEA drug sting, could flee US if freed from prison

The premier of the British Virgin Islands, whom US prosecutors described in court as “corrupt to the core”, has been given a $500,000 bond that would allow him to be released from prison as he awaits trial on charges tied to a US narcotics sting.

Federal court judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes rejected prosecutors’ argument that Andrew Fahie would flee the US and possibly engage in criminal activity if he is freed.

Instead, she said on Wednesday that he could remain in Miami, confined to the rented apartment of his two college-age daughters, if he and his family surrender their passports and he wears an ankle bracelet monitor in addition to paying the sizeable corporate surety bond.

Assistant US attorney Frederic Shadley said the government would appeal against the decisionand it was unclear when Fahie would be released.

Fahie, 51, was arrested last week at a Miami airport during a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting after allegedly being given what he thought was $700,000 in cash, that was to be flown back on a private jet to the British Virgin Islands on Fahie’s behalf. Also arrested was his ports director, Oleanvine Maynard.

Fahie stood handcuffed shaking his head in disagreement as Shadley told the court that the politician had bragged in recorded conversations with a DEA informant that this “wasn’t my first rodeo” with criminals.

According to court documents, a DEA informant posing as a member of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel allegedly met on several occasions with Fahie, Maynard and Maynard’s son to discuss a deal that would send thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through the British Virgin Islands and on to Puerto Rico, Miami and New York.

In exchange for bribes and 10% – or about $7.8m – for each 3,000kg load of cocaine sold in Miami, Fahie and his co-defendants allegedly agreed to provide safe passage for the drug shipments and create a network of shell companies to launder the proceeds.

“So, this is the full seven?” Fahie allegedly asked the DEA informant who accompanied him to the Miami airport where he was arrested.

“He’s shown in this case that he’s corrupt to the core and believes he’s above the law,” Shadley said. “He was a public servant sworn to uphold those laws but he broke them over and over again.”

Fahie’s attorney, Theresa Van Vliet, disputed that characterisation and said her client would plead not guilty when he is arraigned later this month.

She asserted that because the British Virgin Islands are a British overseas territory, US courts have no jurisdiction over Fahie.

To back up the assertion, she filed what she called a “diplomatic note”, signed by an unidentified official from the premier’s office in Road Town, requesting his “immediate and unconditional release”. The request was sent to the justice department’s office of international affairs.

Fahie’s former allies appear to have disavowed the letter, however.

In a brief announcement on Wednesday, the acting premier, Natalio Wheatley, said the letter was sent erroneously by a “rogue” official, and “does not reflect the position of the premier’s office or the government of the [British] Virgin Islands”.

Even before his arrest, Fahie was under pressure from a special UK-led commission of inquiry investigating corruption on the islands.

Gov John Rankin, who is Queen Elizabeth II’s representative to the islands and its ultimate executive authority, said the arrests prompted him to release the commission’s report, which concluded that officials, including allies of the premier, fraudulently spent millions of dollars on projects of no public benefit.

In a bid to clean up the government, the commission recommended suspending the islands’ constitution for two years and returning the territory to home rule by officials in London.

In an address over the weekend, Wheatley said he wants to avoid direct rule by Britain but supports working swiftly with Rankin and opposition lawmakers in the islands to address concerns about good governance.

“Direct rule is not an acceptable option to us,” Wheatley said. He said it “would undermine all the progress that our people have made over generations” since 1950, when a local legislative body was launched.

If convicted, Fahie faces a minimum of nearly 20 years in prison.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
×