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Ex-Premier Andrew Fahie is now facing trial alone after former BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard joined her son in signalling that she plans to plead guilty in the drug-trafficking and money-laundering case against the trio in Florida.
Ms. Maynard is now scheduled for a change-of-plea hearing on June 12, according to a May 30 filing in a Miami district court. A similar document was filed eight days earlier on behalf of her son Kadeem Maynard.
Both filings note the cancellation of the pair’s jury trial — at which they had been scheduled to fight the charges alongside Mr. Fahie starting on July 17.
The allegations
The trio are accused of conspiring to smuggle cocaine through Virgin Islands waters into the United States.
They all previously pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to import a controlled substance, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, and attempted money laundering. Mr. Fahie and Ms. Maynard also pleaded not guilty to one count each of “interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering” — a charge that was not brought against Mr. Maynard.
The recent filings did not state to which of the charges the Maynards plan to plead guilty, but a deal with prosecutors could include the condition that they cooperate in the case against Mr. Fahie.
The arrests
Mr. Fahie and Ms. Maynard were arrested in Miami in April 2022 following a sting operation led by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
He was arrested first, at the Miami-Opa Loka Executive Airport, after exiting a plane where he inspected bags filled with $700,000 in fake cash that he believed would be paid to him and Ms. Maynard, according to the complaint against him.
“Why am I getting arrested?” he allegedly protested. “I don’t have any money or drugs.”
Ms. Maynard was arrested later the same day after being shown the same fake money aboard the plane, according to the complaint.
Her son, who is accused of arranging meetings between the pair and a US informant, was arrested in the USVI, according to the DEA.
The Maynards have been held in custody since their arrest, but Mr. Fahie is out on $1 million bail on the condition that he wear an ankle monitor and await trial on house arrest at his daughters’ rented apartment in Florida.
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