By NAN STAFF WRITER
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Sat. April 30, 2022: From Premier of the British Virgin Islands to an inmate in a US federal prison. The life of Andrew Alturo Fahie has taken a rapid nosedive since his arrest on Thursday in Miami on conspiracy to import cocaine and launder money.
Fahie was denied bail during a Zoom court appearance Friday court in South Florida as Judge Jonathan Goodman scheduled a pre-trial detention hearing for Wednesday, May 3rd, and a preliminary hearing for May 13th. Here are 10 things to know about the cases against Fahie, also referred to as “coach” or “head coach.”
1: Fahie is charged with conspiracy to import five or more grams of cocaine and conspiracy to launder money.
2: According to an affidavit from a US DEA special agent, the case against Fahie dates back to October 2021, when a DEA Confidential Source, (CS), met with Lebanese Hezbollah operatives in Tortola, in the BVI. At this meeting, the CS requested the help of the Hezbollah operatives to use Tortola as a temporary storage for cocaine transported from Colombia and bound for the US. The Lebanese agreed to assist by introducing the CS to senior government officials and to approaching Premier Fahie through his head of security. The group also introduced the CS to Oleanvine Maynard, the managing director of the BVI Ports, who was also charged on Friday in South Florida
3: In March 2022, the CS met with Maynard’s son, Kadeem, who told him his mother was waiting on the meeting and they had already begun putting things in place based on the conversations with the Lebanese. The CS also met with Maynard and her son in St. Thomas, USVI and discussed a meeting with Fahie. In describing Fahie, Maynard reportedly said: “I know the man, if he sees an opportunity, he will take it,” according to the affidavit. They also discussed the need to involve Fahie and another government official who was not named. To this Maynard reportedly said: “she knows the premier, he’s down with her so she can go to him at anytime and he would say ok.” She also reportedly added: “you see with my premier, he’s a little crook sometimes, he’s not always straight.”
4: On March 22, 2022, Maynard’s son Kadeem, texted the CS he had met with Fahie and the “head coach wants to play with the team this season.” In a call with the CS, Maynard and Kadeem, the two also reportedly said Fahie was interested in working with the CS but would need $500,000 to handle the ports and airports. Maynard also reportedly said that Fahie would need some money to get the person listed as “Government Official 1” on their side. She also revealed that Fahie had reportedly given her code words to use when she wanted to meet with him on the scheme and a meeting was set for April 7th.
5: However, Fahie appeared skittish about the CS and requested a call on April 1st. On the call, Fahie reportedly said he wanted to make sure the CS was not law enforcement as “it took me 20 years to get here and I don’t want to leave in 20 minutes.” However, the April 7th meeting was confirmed. On April 7th, the CS met with Maynard and Kadeem in Tortola who drove him to a location to where Fahie was in another vehicle, sitting in the front passenger seat. They were then driven to a meeting location an hour away during which time, Fahie reportedly complained that the British government did not pay him enough.
6: During the meeting, the CS told Fahie that he worked with the Sinola cartel in Mexico and they were requested free passage through the use of the Tortola ports for free passage of 3,000 kilograms of cocaine at a time.
The cocaine would come from Colombia to the BVI then to Puerto Rico and on to Miami and New York. It would be packaged as construction material, in five-kilogram buckets of waterproofing paint. The material would not test positive for cocaine, but the cocaine would later be extracted over the course of four days in either Puerto Rico or Miami. The CS explained that the per kilogram cost of the cocaine in Miami was USD 26-28,000 while in New York it is $32-38,000.
The CS proposed offering Fahie 12 percent of the 3,000 kilos allowed to pass through or US$78 million. Fahie reportedly took out a calculator and ran the numbers calculating that he would earn USD 7.8 million and agreed to let the CS use the ports to ship his cocaine. He also reportedly said Maynard had the licenses of the companies the CS would need. Fahie reportedly then asked for USD 500,000 in upfront payment to which the CS responded he would provide additional money at a meeting in Miami.
7: The CS also reportedly proposed funding Fahie’s re-election campaign and asked that he be allowed to choose Fahie’s successor so the drug operation could continue. He also asked to do a 3,000 kilo test run in Miami, which would be followed by four months of 3,000 kilos of cocaine coming through the islands two to three times per month. They would then break before resuming. Fahie reportedly agreed to that plan. The CS then gave Fahie USD 20,000 as a “good faith gift.”
8: The CS then proposed they would organize “seizures” of bad drugs and money in the BVI to avoid suspicion. Fahie reportedly laughed and said the CS had thought of everything. Fahie then asked if the CS was undercover to which the CS responded in a way the convinced Fahie he was not, stating in part, “well first of all you are not touching anything.” To which Fahie reportedly replied: “I will touch one thing, the money.” Fahie also told the CS the British were trying to get him out of office for years. Towards the end of the meeting, Fahie asked Maynard to leave the room and told the CS he also needed $83,000 to pay a debt he owed in Senegal. The CS agreed to help and arranged a meeting in Miami for April 27th with Maynard and Fahie.
9: The CS agreed to leave $700,000 in cash in a private jet at the Opa Locka airport in Miami that would be retrieved by Maynard and another person on April 28th and flown back to the BVI. Fahie was set to fly to St. Maarten to join the Cs on May. 2nd to meet the man from Senegal and pay back the debt on his behalf.
On 27 April in Miami the informant and an undercover DEA officer met Maynard to discuss the deal that had been struck with the BVI premier.
The source explained that the drugs would start coming from Colombia to St Thomas on the US Virgin Islands on 30 April and that they would be a point of contact in Tortola.
Maynard said the boats carrying the drugs wouldn’t even need to enter the port as she would be able to see them come in from her office.
According to the affidavit, the next day the informant and undercover agent arrived at Fahie’s house in South Florida to pick him up and take him to Opa Locka Airport where he was travelling to Philadelphia on a private plane.
The informant said he wanted to show Fahie something before he left.
Boarding a different plane, he revealed the arranged $700,000 in designer shopping bags, and said it would be later put in suitcases but he wanted the premier to check it first.
Fahie agreed and they all got off the plane where law enforcement officials were waiting to arrest him.
He responded by asking: “Why am I being arrested, I don’t have any money or drugs?”
Later that morning the source and the undercover agent picked up Ms Maynard from her hotel in Miami and drove her to the same airport.
She too was brought aboard the private jet and shown the money, before being given $200,000 for her part.
As they left the plane, she was arrested by law enforcement.
10: The Friday, April 29th, court hearing coincided ironically with the release on Friday of a report commissioned by Queen Elizabeth’s representative in the British Caribbean territory, which concluded that its constitution and elected government should be suspended due to concerns about dishonest governance.
