A drug plane seized last August after landing at the Captain Auguste George International Airport in Anegada will soon be sent to the United States, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley said during a recent House of Assembly meeting.
“The plane is at the T. B. Lettsome International Airport for safekeeping,” Dr. Wheatley said of the Cessna, which was allegedly carrying about 800 kilograms of cocaine when it was seized on Aug. 19. “It was a US operation, and once relevant paperwork is completed, the plane will be returned to the US.”
The premier’s May 2 update came in response to questions from opposition member Marlon Penn, who followed up by asking whether the plane is US-registered and under what authority the VI is sending it to the US. After explaining that the Attorney General Chambers might be better positioned to answer questions about what he termed a “legal matter,” Dr. Wheatley cited an agreement with US authorities.
“From my knowledge, of course even if you have an operation that starts in US territory and it ends up in British territory, we have a memorandum of understanding with United States authorities,” the premier said, adding, “I’m not sure if there’s any reason for us to hold on to a damaged plane in that respect, and I’m not sure whether this plane is evidence that’s going to be used in a case. But that’s the situation as has [been] presented to me.”
Mr. Penn agreed that the issue is a “legal matter,” and he ended his line of questioning with a comment.
“It seems like anything of value goes back to the USVI, but when they send the people here — when the process starts in the USVI, [we] have to keep them and repatriate them,” Mr. Penn said. “So I don’t understand how this level of double standard that we continue to say is a friendship — but I digress.”
Initial seizure
The Aug. 19 plane seizure came during a joint operation with US authorities, and no charges have been announced in connection with the incident.
However, police said Sept. 1 that they had arrested, interviewed and released several “persons of interest” and executed search warrants on several Anegada properties.
The incident was followed by the seizure of another drug-laden plane — this one a twin-engine Piper — on Sept. 20 at the Anegada airport.
US Customs and Border Protection said at the time that it had tracked the Piper to the VI, and it was seized after it crash-landed at night.
“Crash landing..!” the US agency stated in a Sept. 24 post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, adding that its agents had worked with VI police to track the aircraft as it headed north toward Anegada. “The aircraft crashed trying to land without lights. Responders seized almost 35 kilograms of cocaine on scene.”
Police Commissioner Mark Collins told the Beacon days later that VI police received intelligence about the plane at roughly 3 a.m. on the night of its arrival. It landed about half an hour later, he said at the time.
Because it was unclear whether the plane’s occupants might pose a serious threat, police did not intercept the plane as it arrived, Mr. Collins said.
The airport was closed at the time, and no fire officers or other staff were on the scene when the plane landed, according to the commissioner. But shortly after the landing, police responded along with an immigration officer and fire officers, he said at the time.
No one from the plane was apprehended, Mr. Collins said, adding that he didn’t know if anyone besides the pilot was aboard. Since the incident, two people were arrested, interviewed and released, the commissioner said at the time, but no charges have been announced.
‘Quite some time’
Mr. Collins also said at the time that the two recent landings were not the first similar incidents reported on the island.
“We’ve had some reports previously about flights landing in the middle of the night: drop-offs and things like that,” he said, adding, “This has been going on for quite some time, I think.”
After the incident, then-governor John Rankin, then-deputy police commissioner St. Clair Amory, and other officials visited the Anegada airport to review the situation.
“We have got significant concerns about the security there,” Mr. Collins said at the time, “and we are collectively looking at ways that we can further enhance the security of the Anegada airport.”
But even then, security concerns at the Anegada airport were not new.
In 2019, about four months after Andrew Fahie took up the post of premier, he described the airport as a potential national security threat.
“What is happening at present is that persons are flying into Anegada without the knowledge of the [BVI Airports Authority], customs or immigration, and then those persons are using ferries as domestic travels to move from one island to the next,” Mr. Fahie said at the time.
Mr. Fahie, however, is now in a Miami prison awaiting sentencing following his February conviction on charges linked to allegations that he conspired to import cocaine into the US in 2022.