Crime/Police
Oleanvine Maynard Plead Guilty To Conspiring To Import Cocaine Into The US
– Former British Virgin Islands Ports Authority Managing Director Faces Minimum Of 10 Years In Prison
– Fully Cooperating With Prosecutors
Former British Virgin Islands Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard today admitted in a Miami federal court that she conspired to import cocaine into the United States and has agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors who are preparing for the drug trafficking and money laundering trial of her co-accused and ex-BVI Premier Andrew Fahie.
The 61-year-old, who filed a change-of-plea motion on May 30 after spending more than a year in federal custody, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to import cocaine on June 12.
Maynard, who faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in a federal prison, also agreed to “cooperate fully” with federal prosecutors.
The former senior government employee, along with the ex-BVI Finance Minister Fahie and her son Khadeem Maynard, were arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration Agents (DEA) on April 28, 2022.
They were charged with conspiring to import more than five kilos of cocaine into the United States and conspiring to launder $700,000.
The female Maynard and Fahie were detained at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in Florida on April 28, 2022.
While thirty-two-year-old Kadeem Maynard was arrested in St Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, and later deported to the United States mainland.
After spending more than a year in federal custody he too has decided to change his plea to guilty. His change-of-plea hearing was also scheduled for today.
Meanwhile, Fahie, the ex-First Electoral District Representative and Chairman of the Virgin Islands Party, is currently on one million dollars bail – $500,000 cash and $500,000 surety – lives in his daughters’ two-bedroom apartment in Florida and wears an ankle monitor.
He is preparing for the start of his trial in July.
The current drug trafficking and money laundering case against Fahie and the two Maynards started in mid October 2021 when a DEA informant met with a group claiming to have ties with the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and business connections in Florida.
The DEA affidavit stated that the informant posing as a member of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel met with Maynard and her son Kadeem in March 2022 on Tortola and St Thomas, United States Virgin Islands.
The discussion focused on using the territory’s ports to ship thousands of kilos of cocaine from Colombia to Miami and New York via Puerto Rico; each kilogram would be sold for between US$26,000 and US$38,000.
And for looking the other way, they would receive a percentage of the monies made from the sale of the narcotics. According to court documents, the ex-Ports Authority Managing Director explained the payouts will be hidden in shell companies and she would easily process the paperwork “so you can come into the territory for a couple days, and then move on.” While Fahie agreed to the arrangement for ten percent of the proceeds.
“You see my premier, he’s a little crook sometimes,” Maynard told the DEA confidential source, according to the affidavit.
Residents in the British Virgin Islands were shocked by the trio’s arrest in 2022 which made global headlines.