Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley never suspected Andrew Fahie of any wrongdoing despite working closely with him in the years leading up to his 2022 arrest on drug-conspiracy charges in Miami, Mr. Wheatley said.
“I didn’t know anything that was taking place,” Mr. Wheatley told the Beacon in a recent interview, where he opened up about the arrest and sentencing of his predecessor following a sting operation by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
Mr. Fahie, who is appealing his conviction and maintains his innocence, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison last August for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine through Virgin Islands waters to the US. During the sentencing in Florida, District Court Judge Kathleen Williams called Mr. Fahie’s actions an attempt to “tip the British Virgin Islands from a renowned tourist destination to a haven for narcotrafficking.”
Given that prosecutors initially requested 19 years in prison and Mr. Fahie’s attorneys argued for 10 years, Mr. Wheatley suggested that Mr. Fahie should be grateful for the outcome.
“Considering the sentence that I think he could have gotten, you know, I was actually expecting more,” Mr. Wheatley said, adding, “I think he should give God thanks that it could have been a lot worse.”
A ‘good teacher’
Mr. Wheatley was first elected to office in 2019 as a member of the Virgin Islands Party then led by Mr. Fahie, and he was serving as deputy premier at the time of Mr. Fahie’s arrest in Miami in April 2022.
But their relationship went much further back, he said.
“I have known him since I was a student in school,” Mr. Wheatley said. “He was a teacher; I was a student. We had a great deal of respect for him. He was a very good teacher; a very well-liked individual.”
Political break
The premier also said Mr. Fahie gave him a political break, helping him win a seat in the House of Assembly for the first time and then eventually appointing him deputy premier in his administration.
“He gave me an opportunity, politically,” he said. “And I’m appreciative for that. But we were certainly shocked when we discovered what was taking place. We had no idea that any of that was happening.”
No recent contact
Mr. Wheatley said he has not spoken to Mr. Fahie recently.
“Maybe I have spoken to him once or twice since this situation took place, but we haven’t spoken in a very long time,” he said.
Mr. Fahie was arrested in Miami on April 28, 2022, after an elaborate sting operation carried out by the US DEA.
As part of the operation, undercover agents posed as members of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, asking Mr. Fahie to help facilitate “free passage” of cocaine through VI waters on the way to Puerto Rico, according to prosecutors.
Mr. Fahie served as premier from 2019 to 2022.
After the 2019 election, he appointed Mr. Wheatley the minister of education, culture, youth affairs, fisheries and agriculture. Then, in August 2020, after giving other ministers short stints as deputy premier, Mr. Fahie appointed Mr. Wheatley to that post too for the duration of the government’s term in office.
In that role, Mr. Wheatley was acting as premier at the time of Mr. Fahie’s arrest, and he subsequently was appointed premier at the head of the hastily formed National Unity Government.
He also took over Mr. Fahie’s role as the chairman of the VIP, and he later led the party to victory in the April 2023 general election.