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DEA Evidence uncovers a network of Corruption in BVI government; Premier Andrew Fahie “a crook”

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By Deandrea Hamilton

Editor

 

#BritishVirginIslands, April 28, 2022 – From the affidavit provided to the US District Court of Southern Florida which led to the shameful and shocking arrested of the premier of the British Virgin Islands; Andrew Fahie was not only prepared to allow the BVI to be used as a major drug transshipment port, but exposed that he is well aware of who are the drug dealers in his country; which government official was on their payroll and actually worked with drug and arms dealers to traffic these illicit products into the British Overseas territory.

Video and audio recordings, informed the undercover DEA officer, would support his account of the events which stared on October 16, 2021 and ended on April 28, 2022 with the arrest of the BVI premier, the BVI’s director of ports and her son, who bragged about a 20-year career in illegal smuggling, according to Special Agent Shad Aschleman, an 18-year officer with the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

Aschleman was posing as a fixer for a Mexican drug cartel and managed to get an incredible and scandalous amount of information over the six months.

Oleanvine Maynard, the ports director made it clear – according to the undercover officer – she was for sale, that she knew what to do to get the drugs through her port and that she would personally oversee the movement of the kilos of cocaine from Colombia to Puerto Rico or Florida.  She called the undercover agent “my brother”, promised to set up shell companies to make payments and operations appear legitimate and said her Premier was “a crook sometimes.” Her incognito name as the drug deal was set up was Rose, and she was yesterday arrested after exiting a private plane at the Opa-Locka airport in Miami and after allegedly receiving $200k in cash as part of good faith payment.  Her arrest followed the Premier’s bust.

The Premier’s code name was Head Coach as they all colluded to establish this lucrative living; it amounted to $7.8 million in money from drug movement through the BVI said the affidavit.  Fahie, was also arrested Thursday after exiting the airport at Opa-Locka; he had seen and allegedly approved the movement of $700k via private airplane.  It was to be hidden on the aircraft, which would fly to the British Virgin Islands.

Oleanvine Maynard’s son, Kadeem Maynard was also arrested yesterday.  Kadeem had accounts in the US linked to a real estate company his mother told the undercover officer; he used those accounts for payments and she offered that is where he could make payments to her for her part in the deal.

Kadeem Maynard was talkative and offered that he had two members of the Royal BVI police force on his payroll already.

When it comes to the premier, he shared that the UK did not pay him enough, that the UK was out to get him out of office and that he needed an extra $78k to pay off a person from Senegal, who helped him with some political problems.

It was like reading a crime novel; a 19-page nail bitter; but it was not fictional, it is all real and the document is the case document filed in the US District Court on Thursday.

Ironically the thing Fahie feared the most, eventually came to him.  He was recorded saying to the agent, whom he suspected may have been working undercover; ‘I worked 20 years to get here, I don’t want it to end in 20 minutes.’

All three BVI citizens are in US custody – pre-trial detention.

The UK yesterday confirmed the arrests and commented.  The Foreign Secretary Liz Truss saying she is “appalled.”

The island’s governor, John Rankin, has addressed the arrest in a statement on Thursday.  He said despite this sinking blow to BVI of this arrest, he will still release the report from the recently concluded Commission of Inquiry.  The reason; he said it was important to prove that the drug smuggling and money laundering arrests and charges had nothing to do with the UK; the report would expose a different set of concerns when it came to Andrew Fahie’s governance.

Caribbean News

CARPHA Progresses to Eligibility for the First Disbursement of Pandemic Funding

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Following a landmark Public Signing Ceremony for the Pandemic Fund (PF) Technical Cooperation Agreement (“Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Prevention, Preparedness, and Response” [RG-T4387] Project) on December 14, 2023, in Trinidad, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) continues to progress towards the start of implementation.

 CARPHA fulfilled the IDB’s nine conditions prior to first disbursement, achieving full eligibility on March 15, 2024, and is now eligible for the first disbursement. This milestone achievement in just 3 months after the signing speaks to the commitment of both CARPHA, the Executing Agency, and IDB, the Implementing Entity, toward the regional PF project with the objective of supporting the reduction of the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean by building pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) surveillance & early-warning systems (EWS), laboratory systems and workforce capacity, regionally at CARPHA and in countries.

Since the signing of the Technical Cooperation Agreement and as part of the conditions prior to first disbursement, CARPHA has achieved the following key outputs (i) the development of the PF Project Operations Manual, Multi-annual Execution Plan, Procurement Plan, Financial Plan, Procedure for CARPHA’s Financial Reporting System; (ii) vacancy announcements for two tranches of consultants with the subsequent hiring of five (Technical Coordinator, Financial Specialist, Procurement Specialist, Operations Officer and Project Operations Coordinator) and (iii) the establishment of the Project Execution Unit (PEU) and Project Execution Steering Committee (PESC). The dedicated PEU will be responsible for execution according to its planned timelines, which will be led by the Dr. Lisa Indar, the Project Director (CARPHA’s Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control Division).

 CARPHA, as the lead regional public health agency and an expression of Caribbean Cooperation in Health is mandated by its Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) to support its 26 CARPHA Member States (CMS) in bolstering national systems and coordinating regional response to public health threats. The Agency works closely with regional and international agencies and uses regional mechanisms, surveillance systems, and networks for coordinating its public health response work.

In July 2023, the PF Governing Board announced that CARPHA’s regional entity proposal, entitled ‘Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Strengthened Integrated Early Warning Surveillance, Laboratory Systems and Workforce Development’ was successfully selected for the first round of financing. It was one of only 19 proposals selected from over 300 submissions and the only regional project. The three priority areas in the proposal are: (i) Comprehensive disease surveillance and EWS, (ii) Laboratory systems and (iii) Human resources and public health and community workforce capacity.

This project is expected to begin implementation in March 2024, starting off with a blended onboarding session. A Stakeholder Meeting with countries is tentatively planned for July 2024.

CARPHA remains dedicated to working together with the IDB, CARPHA Member States and the Pandemic Fund to successfully implement the regional proposal geared toward reducing the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean.

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Caribbean News

Men who had Murdered Man, Marley Higgs’ cell phone face Court

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Wilkie Arthur

Freelance Court Correspondent

The prosecution intends to try two young North Caicos men, both age 21 for the offense of possession of property of a murdered man, property that was stolen and landed in their possession.

The phone belonged to Peureton ‘Marley’ Higgs, who is believed to have been an innocent gunned down at his apartment complex in the Glass Shack area in a spray of bullets on February 2 that killed another man and wounded two others, including a ten-year-old little girl.

The cell phone was described as white in colour, an iPhone, in a hard black case. 

On Monday, March 18th, JEFFVANO HANDFIELD of North Caicos pleaded not guilty to the offense, and the matter was adjourned to April 2024. He was granted bail in the matter.

A second North Caicos man was charged similarly.  

SARENO CAPELLAN aka, Kino Williams is the second individual brought before the court pertaining to the said cellphone. He appeared in court a week after JEFFVANO HANDFIELD, the date being Monday March 25th 2024.

The case for the Crown is that both men sometime in February of this year possessed the cellphone knowing or suspecting it to be stolen property.

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Caribbean News

Supreme Court Closed for Easter

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NOTICE is hereby given that the Easter Recess shall commence on Friday 29th April, 2024 and end on Friday 5th April, 2024. During the Easter Recess Judge Selochan will be available to deal only with matters that are urgent or require prompt attention.

Court Business During the Easter Recess

A person who wishes to have a matter heard during the recess must file a certificate of urgency along with an affidavit, which must set out the reasons why the matter is urgent or requires prompt attention. The matter will not be listed during the recess unless the Judge deems it fit for urgent hearing.

Opening Hours During the Easter Holiday

The Supreme Court’s last sitting day for the first term is Thursday 28th March, 2024. The Court will officially resume sittings on Monday 8th April, 2024. The Supreme Court Offices in both Grand Turk and Providenciales will continue to operate while the Court is not sitting during the recess.

The Court Office will be closed on the following public holidays:

  • Friday 29th March, 2024 (Good Friday) CLOSED
  • Monday 1st April, 2024 (Easter Monday) CLOSED

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