Judge OKs bond for Virgin Islands premier

The premier of the British Virgin Islands could be released on a $500,000 bond as he awaits trial on charges tied to a U.S. government narcotics sting, a federal judge in Miami said Wednesday.

In a surprise decision, federal court Judge Alicia OtazoReyes rejected prosecutors’ argument that Andrew Fahie would flee if released. Instead, she said he could remain in Miami, at the home of his two college-age daughters, if he and his family surrender their travel documents and he wears an ankle bracelet monitor and pays the bond.

Prosecutors said they would appeal, meaning it’s unclear when and if Fahie will be released.

Fahie, 51, was arrested last week in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting after accepting what he was told was $700,000 from undercover DEA agents and informants who posed as Mexican drug traffickers. Fahie and his ports director, Oleanvine Maynard, met with the group on a private jet in the Miami area, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint says Maynard referred to Fahie as a “little crook sometimes” who wouldn’t hesitate to profit from a plan cooked up with the help of self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah operatives to move cocaine and drug proceeds through the Caribbean island.