The money laundering and drug trafficking trial of ex-British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie which was scheduled to start next month in a federal court in the United States has been moved to January 2024.

The former Finance Minister, through his lawyer Theresa Van Vliet, on June 20 filed an unopposed motion asking for his trial date to be shifted from July 17 to allow his team to better prepare his defence given the new developments in the case.

The motion was filed eight days after his co-accused Oleanvine Maynard and her son Kadeem Maynard pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and agreed to cooperate fully with federal prosecutors.

On June 12, the Maynards pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States in a Miami federal court as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

The two face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in a federal prison and have agreed to “cooperate fully” with federal prosecutors in Fahie’s case.

Oleanvine Maynard, the former British Virgin Islands Ports Authority Managing Director and Kadeem Maynard along with the Fahie 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 the Maynards changed their pleas.

Meanwhile, the 52-year-old father Fahie 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. He lives in his daughters’ two-bedroom apartment in Florida and wears an ankle monitor.

Fahie is charged with one count of conspiracy to import a controlled substance and launder money, attempted money laundering and interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering

The trio were arrested during a DEA sting spanning meetings in the BVI, United States Virgin Islands and the United States.

The DEA affidavit said they had planned to use 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.