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British Virgin Islands premier released on bond in drug case

Published:Wednesday | May 4, 2022 | 1:07 PM
This photo released by the Department of Information and Public Relations of the government of the British Virgin Islands on April 22, 2022, shows British Virgin Island Premier Andrew Alturo Fahie. (Department of Information and Public Relations of the government of the British Virgin Islands via AP)

The premier of the British Virgin Islands, accused of drug-smuggling charges following a US government sting in South Florida, was released Wednesday on a $500,000 bond.

In a surprise decision, federal court Judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes in Miami rejected prosecutors' argument that Andrew Fahie would flee the US if released pending trial on cocaine charges.

Instead, she said he could remain in Miami, at the rented home of his two college-age daughters, if he and his family surrender their travel documents and he wears an ankle bracelet monitor as well as pay a $500,000 corporate surety bond.

Fahie, 51, was arrested last week during a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting as he was preparing to board a private jet in the Miami area.

According to a criminal complaint, Fahie and Oleanvine Maynard, his ports director, had been at the airport to meet who they thought were Mexican drug traffickers but in reality were undercover DEA agents.

In the criminal complaint, Maynard refers 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 mass quantities of cocaine and drug proceeds through the Caribbean island.

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