Former BVI Premier Andrew Fahie to face life imprisonment for cocaine smuggling

The former premier of the British Virgin Islands, Andrew Fahie, was found guilty of conspiring to smuggle over 3000 kilograms of cartel cocaine into the United States. He was also found guilty of attempting to launder the $1.2 Million that he would have earned from the deal.

According to the reports, Fahie could face life imprisonment along with a $10 million fine, and he will be sentenced on April 29, 2024.

Fahie was taken into custody in Miami on Thursday Afternoon after an eight-day trial with the 12-member jury. The jury charged Fahie with conspiracy to import a controlled substance while engaging in money laundering as well as interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering. He was found guilty on all four charges.

During the last trial, the prosecution presented evidence of a conspiracy to bribe BVI authorities to ignore cocaine shipments using the Tortola coastline.

The 53-year-old former Premier of BVI was arrested back in April 2022 along with 61-year-old Oleanvine Maynard, the BVI port director, and her 32-year-old son Kadeem. The arrest was made after the three were fooled by $700k fake dollars when they were lured to Miami in a US Drug Enforcement Agency's sting operation. During the operation, an agent posed as a Mexican Sinaloa cartel honcho named Robert Quintero.

According to the reports, Oleanvine and Kadeem testified against Andrew Fahie in court, following which Kadeem got his sentence reduced to 5 years in prison after snitching and was sentenced in November to 57 months in prison on a single charge of conspiracy to import cocaine.

Meanwhile, Oleanvine will get about 20 years or less. She is due to be sentenced on February 22

Meanwhile, Fahie's lawyer stated that he was playing a role to find out who was trying to set him up because he knew the British wanted to get rid of him.

This is the reason that he accepted the bribes from the fake trafficker, so he could find whether the smuggler was out to destroy him on behalf of the British government which controls the Caribbean territory, his lawyer said during closing arguments.