By EFE
06 Aug 2024, 02:15 AM EDT
A federal court in Miami sentenced former British Virgin Islands Prime Minister Andrew Fahie to 11 years in prison after being found guilty in February of drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States.
Florida Southern District Court Judge Kathleen M. Williams gave Fahie, 53, a more lenient sentence than he could have otherwise received, up to life in prison, for actions she described at his sentencing hearing as an attempt to “turn the British Virgin Islands from a well-known tourist destination into a drug haven.”
“Mr Fahie has lost his way”
“When a government official uses his position for personal gain,” the judge added, “it is a violation of trust; it violates public safety. It is the ultimate betrayal.”
However, Judge Williams also acknowledged evidence that Fahie had helped people in his community “become doctors, become lawyers, receive MBA degrees and essentially find their way to a better life.”
“For reasons we will never understand,” the judge added, “Mr. Fahie lost his way and became involved in this criminal scheme.”
Seven criminal charges
Fahie, arrested in 2022 at a South Florida airport, faced seven criminal charges, including “conspiracy to import controlled substances, money laundering and traveling abroad in aid of organized crime.”
Prosecutors had recommended that Fahie be sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to import cocaine and other crimes that the prosecution considered “extremely serious.”
The politician was arrested along with the director of the Port Authority of the Caribbean archipelago, Oleanvine Pickering Maynard, by agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
They facilitated the passage to cocaine
Fahie, Maynard and her son, Kadeem Stephan Maynard, were arrested and charged with “agreeing to facilitate the safe passage through BVI (British Virgin Islands) ports of tons of Colombian cocaine bound for Miami.”
In exchange, the prosecutors said, the defendants “would earn millions that would be channeled through different companies and bank accounts to hide the origin of the money.” According to the indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the three participated in a series of meetings with an alleged drug trafficker to negotiate the deal.
“Fahie and Maynard would obtain the required licenses and protect the cocaine-laden vessels while in BVI ports,” the affidavit reads.
According to prosecutors, they discussed transporting 3,000 kilograms of cocaine through a port in the British Virgin Islands as evidence, followed by another equal amount once or twice a month for four months.
Last year, Oleanvine Maynard’s son, Kadeem Stepahn Maynard, 33, pleaded guilty to the same charge as his mother and was sentenced to five years in prison.
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