British Virgin Islands premier released from custody in drug-smuggling case

The premier of the British Virgin Islands who faces drug-smuggling charges following a US government sting in Florida has been released from custody.

In a surprise decision, Miami federal court Judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes rejected prosecutors’ arguments that Andrew Fahie would flee the US if released pending trial on cocaine charges.

Instead, she said he could remain in Miami, at the rented home of his two college-age daughters, if he and his family surrender their travel documents and he wears an ankle monitor as well as pay a 500,000 dollar (£400,000) corporate surety bond.

Fahie, 51, was arrested last week during a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sting as he was preparing to board a private jet in the Miami area.

According to a criminal complaint, Fahie and Oleanvine Maynard, his ports director, had been at the airport to meet people they thought were Mexican drug traffickers but in reality were undercover DEA agents.

In the criminal complaint, Maynard refers to Fahie as a “little crook sometimes” who would not hesitate to profit from a plan cooked up with the help of self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah operatives to move mass quantities of cocaine and drug proceeds through the Caribbean island.