United States District Court Judge Kathleen Williams has once again delayed the sentencing of Oleanvine Maynard, forcing the former BVI Ports Authority managing director to wait until June to know her fate.

Ms. Maynard and then-premier Andrew Fahie were arrested in Miami in April 2022 on allegations that they conspired to smuggle cocaine into the United States. She originally denied the charges, but on June 12, 2023, she changed her plea to guilty on a charge of conspiracy to import cocaine. In exchange, prosecutors dropped three other charges against her.

Ms. Maynard’s sentencing hearing, most recently scheduled for Friday of last week, has been postponed five times since she changed her plea. Ms. Williams is now set to sentence the 62-year-old on June 6, according to a note filed in the court’s docket. The note states that that “no further continuances will be granted.”

The reasons for the delays have not been disclosed in public court records.

Fahie sentencing

Mr. Fahie, whose sentencing has also been delayed repeatedly since he was convicted in February, is now scheduled to be sentenced on June 25. Ms. Maynard testified for the prosecution during Mr. Fahie’s trial in February as part of her effort to obtain a more lenient sentence.

Although she technically faces a minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life, she could receive a lesser term under “safety valve” provisions in US sentencing rules.

Waiting in prison

Currently, Ms. Maynard, assigned Bureau of Prisons register number 07490-506, resides in the Miami Federal Detention Center, a short walk from the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. US Courthouse where Ms. Williams presides.

Ms. Maynard’s son Kadeem Maynard and Mr. Fahie, both her alleged co-conspirators in the trafficking scheme, are also being held at FDC-Miami, according to the US Bureau of Prisons.

Testimony

Ms. Maynard testified in February that in 2022 she had agreed to help a man she knew as Roberto Quintero advance a plan to
traffic large amounts of cocaine to the US via VI waters.

In exchange, Ms. Maynard was to receive some $200,000 in cash that was to be flown via private plane from Miami to Beef Island.

Ms. Maynard was arrested on April 28, 2022, at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport after viewing fake cash aboard a plane, and she has remained in custody since then.

Confidential source

She would learn later that Mr. Quintero was a confidential source employed by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to help carry out a sting operation.

In her February testimony, Ms. Maynard noted that she met with Mr. Quintero, who had been introduced to her as a “potential investor” in the VI, on March 30, 2022, at a restaurant in St. Thomas.

During the two-hour meeting, which was surreptitiously recorded, Mr. Quintero explained that he was in the business of shipping cocaine. Ms. Maynard offered to get him the businesses licences he would need to set up shop in the VI and suggested that her son would become a shipping agent so that he could help clear Mr. Quintero’s vessels to enter the territory.

Fahie introduction

Ms. Maynard also pledged to introduce Mr. Quintero to Mr. Fahie.

In exchange for her help, Mr. Quintero gave Ms. Maynard a $10,000 “gift” in cash during the St. Thomas lunch meeting.

She testified in February that a few moments after she accepted the money, Mr. Quintero took her hand.

“Welcome, my friend. Welcome to the Sinaloa Cartel,” the DEA source said on a recording played in court. “I know this will be a good relationship for us.”

Addressing the jury, Ms. Maynard explained that she wasn’t entirely sure what Mr. Quintero meant by that.

“He made a statement, and he shook my hand,” she said. “At that time, I wasn’t so familiar with this cartel business. Well, I’d heard the name, but I wasn’t so much into what it was all about. But I just went along with it.”