Premier caught in sting says ‘British didn’t pay him much’
Facing an offer he could not refuse from what he thought was a Mexican drug cartel, the premier of the British Virgin Islands pulled out a calculator to work out his 12% cut.
Andrew Fahie, 51, reckoned he would get $7.8 million (NZ$12m) for allowing the traffickers to smuggle cocaine through ports on the islands in the British overseas territory that he runs, the US authorities have alleged.
The leader of the Caribbean archipelago, among the remnants of the British empire, was arrested by undercover agents in a sting operation at Miami airport on Thursday and accused of trying to smuggle drugs into the US.
When he met an informant masquerading as a member of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, he sought to justify his actions by saying the ‘‘British didn’t pay him much’’, court documents say.
The sting began as a meeting between the informant, who was working for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and men claiming to be members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, in October.
Over several meetings, the DEA operative claimed that the cartel he worked for, previously run by the infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, known as ‘‘El Chapo’’, wanted Hezbollah’s assistance in using the BVI as a staging post for smuggling cocaine from Colombia to the US.
The ‘‘self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah operatives ... stated they had business ties to south Florida’’ and could introduce the informant to ‘‘senior BVI officials’’. The group said the BVI government would offer protection for the traffickers and help to launder the proceeds, for a price.
One militant offered to set up a meeting with the head of security for Fahie. He also claimed that he ‘‘owned’’ Oleanvine Maynard, head of the territory’s ports authority.
The sting reached its climax on Thursday when Fahie and Maynard were arrested by DEA agents on a private jet in Miami as they came to inspect designer shopping bags holding $700,000 in fake cash, a pay-off for storing 3000kg of cocaine in a BVI port before the shipment could be smuggled into the US through Puerto Rico.
Fahie and Maynard, dressed in prison uniforms, appeared via Zoom in the US court for the Southern District of Florida on Friday, charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.
Maynard’s son, Kadeem, is also in custody, accused of helping to negotiate the deal.
The day before his arrest, Fahie confided to an undercover agent he ‘‘believed in witches and magic and how to read lies in people’’. At a meeting in Miami with the DEA informant and an undercover officer during the week, the premier asked the informant to lead the party in prayer before they sat down to finalise the deal.
Despite its tiny size, the archipelago retains huge influence in the secretive and controversial world of offshore finance. Hundreds of thousands of clandestine companies are registered in the territory, controlling billions of dollars in assets from across the globe.
The sting has also run in parallel with a commission of inquiry set up by the BVI’s former governor, Augustus Jaspert, and overseen by the retired British judge Sir Gary Hickinbottom, into the governance of the territory. The inquiry uncovered allegations of systemic corruption and cronyism, including widespread misuse of public funds. On Friday it recommended that direct rule of the islands effectively be returned to London, with the territory’s constitution suspended for two years.
Liz Truss, the UK foreign secretary, has sent Amanda Milling, a junior minister, to the BVI on a ‘‘fact-finding mission’’. Truss said Fahie’s arrest was ‘‘extremely concerning’’.
Fahie had been eager to be involved in the deal with the Mexican cartel, it is alleged. According to court documents, Maynard told the informant at a meeting in March: ‘‘I know the type of person he is. If he sees an opportunity, he will take it. He is a little crook sometimes.’’
The Maynards introduced the DEA source to Fahie on Tortola two weeks later, where the premier complained that ‘‘the British didn’t pay him much’’ and claimed the government in London wanted him removed from office, court documents alleged.
Fahie did suspect a sting. In one exchange the premier asked the informant directly if he was an undercover agent. The informant said no and sought to reassure Fahie. ‘‘First of all, you’re not touching anything,’’ the informant said, referring to the cocaine. ‘‘I will touch one thing,’’ Fahie allegedly replied, ‘‘the money.’’