Former premier Andrew Fahie is pushing back against prosecutors’ contention that he led a plan to smuggle cocaine into the United States, instead arguing that it was a Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source who drove the 2022 conspiracy.
Citing the hours of recordings presented by prosecutors during Mr. Fahie’s February trial, defence attorney Theresa Van Vliet asserted that the US source — who was introduced to the former premier as a cocaine-smuggler named “Roberto Quintero” — played the conspiracy’s lead role.
“Anyone who heard the recordings of conversations and meetings in this case cannot help but recognise that the driving force behind every conversation, every aspect of the conspiracy at issue, was the [confidential source],” the lawyer wrote in a July 17 court filing.
If US District Court Judge Kathleen Williams accepts the latest argument ahead of Mr. Fahie’s Aug. 5 sentencing, it could help him avoid the life prison sentence that prosecutors are seeking. Mr. Fahie, who maintains his innocence and plans to appeal his conviction, has asked that he receive the minimum ten year sentence.
His attorney has argued that the minimum is appropriate because even the US’ own allegations — which Mr. Fahie denies — suggest that he was no more than a “figurehead” who played a “minor role” in the alleged conspiracy.
Ms. Van Vliet also previously suggested that Mr. Fahie’s co-defendants — former BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard and her son Kadeem Maynard, both of whom are currently serving prison time in the US after pleading guilty — played a bigger role in the conspiracy than the former premier.
As part of his arguments for a life sentence, Mr. Gerarde alleged that the plan involved more than five people and an alleged breach of trust. But in her filing last week, Ms. Van Vliet questioned the roles of some of the six people Mr. Gerarde had suggested were somehow involved in the conspiracy: the Maynards; former Customs Commissioner Wade Smith; former BVIPA deputy chairwoman Roxane Sylvester; Baye Cisse, a Senegalese friend Mr. Fahie allegedly consulted about the smuggling scheme; and another man Mr. Gerarde did not name but who would have allegedly assisted Mr. Maynard. April 27, 2022 — “had no knowledge of the charged conspiracy.”
Prosecution claims
But in a June 28 response to an earlier defence motion, Assistant US Attorney Kevin Gerarde argued that Mr. Fahie was an “organiser” of a plan to allow thousands of kilograms of cocaine to transit VI waters in exchange for large cash payments.
As part of his arguments for a life sentence, Mr. Gerarde alleged that the plan involved more than five people and an alleged breach of trust.
But in her filing last week, Ms. Van Vliet questioned the roles of some of the six people Mr. Gerarde had suggested were somehow involved in the conspiracy: the Maynards; former Customs Commissioner Wade Smith; former BVIPA deputy chairwoman Roxane Sylvester; Baye Cisse, a Senegalese friend Mr. Fahie allegedly consulted about the smuggling scheme; and another man Mr. Gerarde did not name but who would have allegedly assisted Mr. Maynard.
Aside from the Maynards, the other individuals have not been charged in connection with the case, and Ms. Van Vliet suggested that some of them may not have been involved at all.
Phone records
As one example, she noted that the prosecution’s case for Mr. Smith’s involvement hinged on phone records that show Mr. Fahie called Mr. Smith the morning after discussing him in a meeting with Mr. Quintero.
“To suggest that Mr. Fahie recruited Mr. Smith into the charged conspiracy is not supported by the totality of the evidence,” Ms. Van Vliet wrote. “The mere fact that a phone record reveals that there was a telephone call between Mr. Smith and Mr. Fahie on April 1, 2022, without any evidence about the nature of the call or what was discussed, renders no support for the government’s contentions.”
Similarly, the attorney argued that Ms. Sylvester — who briefly met Mr. Quintero in Miami alongside Mr. Fahie and Ms. Maynard on April 27, 2022 — “had no knowledge of the charged conspiracy.”
Senegalese friend
The defence attorney also argued that the US government failed to provide evidence that Mr. Fahie consulted with Mr. Cisse on whether to join the conspiracy.
“Instead, what the evidence did clearly show is that Mr. Cisse was consulted by Mr. Fahie to check on whether certain individuals were, in essence, political enemies, including [Mr. Quintero], Ms. Maynard, Ms. Sylvester and those individuals working on the Commission of Inquiry,” Ms. Van Vliet wrote.
She also noted that Mr. Fahie never had any direct contact with Mr. Maynard. Without proof of the individuals’ involvement, Ms. Van Vliet argued, Mr. Fahie shouldn’t receive a sentencing enhancement for being a “leader” of the conspiracy.
“The government has failed to shoulder its burden of providing evidence for this requirement of the enhancement it seeks,” she wrote.