British Virgin Islands (BVI) premier Andrew Fahy has been arrested in the United States on charges related to drug trafficking and money laundering, the governor of the Caribbean nation said.
Mr Fahi, who was elected in February 2019, was detained by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Miami on Thursday morning, according to BVI governor John Rankin, who said he had been informed of the arrest by the British government.
Mr Fahy and Olenwyn Maynard, managing directors of the BVI Port Authority, were both arrested on charges of money laundering as well as conspiring to import more than 5 kg of cocaine into the US. Miami Herald informed of.
Officers reportedly told the newspaper that they met with undercover DEA agents posing as cocaine smugglers to investigate an alleged shipment of $700,000 (£560,000) in cash on an airplane that they believed to be cocaine smugglers. Was that they were going to the BVI.
The pair are to appear in Miami Federal Court today (April 29).
A third person, Kadim Maynard, son of Ms Maynard, the managing director of the BVI’s Port Authority, was also arrested in connection with the undercover DEA case, but not in Miami. To inform,
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was “shocked by these serious allegations” against the leader of the ruling Virgin Islands party.
She said Mr Rankin would hold an emergency meeting to “determine next steps”.
Truss said one of the next steps would be to urgently publish the report of the Commission of Inquiry that looked into how British overseas territory in the Caribbean is governed, Truss said.
She added: “This arrest shows the importance of the recently concluded commission of inquiry.”