London could suspend the autonomy of the British Virgin Islands, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, following a drug trafficking case involving the prime minister of this Caribbean archipelago. Andrew Fahie, 51, appeared before a Florida judge on Friday after being arrested in the United States on Thursday and charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.
The prime minister, along with the director of port services for the east Puerto Rico archipelago, were arrested at a north Miami airport on Thursday when they thought they had an appointment with Mexican drug dealers who were asked to give them $700,000 in cash. In reality, according to court documents, they were undercover agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
A DEA agent reportedly contacted them, claiming to be a member of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel who needed help transporting drugs from Colombia to Miami and New York via Tortola in the Virgin Islands. Judge Jonathan Goodman of the Florida Southern District Court said Friday they were charged with conspiracy to import five pounds or more of cocaine and conspiracy to launder money.
tax haven
After the affair, a British investigative report published on Friday recommended that Governor John Rankin, appointed by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of the government in London, should take direct control of the overseas territory, which has around 35,000 inhabitants, for two years.
“Yesterday’s arrest of the Prime Minister of the British Virgin Islands accused of drug trafficking and money laundering is extremely worrying and underscores the need for urgent action,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement on Friday. Overseas Minister Amanda Milling will travel to the area “immediately” for talks with John Rankin and key stakeholders, she said. “Then we will announce a clear way forward.”
As early as January last year, the British government had expressed “significant concerns about the deterioration of governance in the British Virgin Islands and the islands’ potential vulnerability to serious organized crime”. This archipelago is known as one of the most important tax havens in the world.