Former BVI Premier Andrew Fahie filed an appeal of his 2024 cocaine and money laundering conviction Tuesday, claiming a lack of evidence, unreliable government agents, and judicial slip-ups.
In February 2024, a Miami jury convicted Fahie of a 2022 plot to import thousands of pounds of cocaine bound for the U.S. mainland with the help of the BVI’s Ports Authority director, her son, and other government employees not charged. They’d been fooled, however, by undercover federal agents posing as members of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Oleanvine Pickering-Maynard and her son, Kadeem Maynard, who had brokered a side deal to import cocaine for sale in the BVI, both accepted plea agreements and were sentenced to nine and five years, respectively, according to court records. They were both released after less than three years’ imprisonment.
Fahie fought the charges and, after conviction, argued he had played only a minor role in the scheme — and that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency was the real ringleader. Fahie, once the British Virgin Islands’ top elected official, was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In his filing with the 11th District Court of Appeals, Fahie’s attorneys argued three reasons the conviction should be vacated.
“Magic cocaine”
Fahie couldn’t be guilty of conspiring to import cocaine because there was no actual cocaine and the fictional narcotics he’d agreed to import were supposedly treated in a way that made them undetectable, according to court records.
Fahie, who was secretly recorded saying he could see through any deception with the help of his personal clairvoyant, had been told boatloads of cocaine would arrive from Colombia in a chemical state resembling liquid concrete. It would then be turned back into cocaine after leaving the BVI.
Even the trial judge had trouble with this whopper and asked prosecutors why the undercover agents had muddied their investigation by inventing “magic cocaine,” according to transcripts of a pre-trial conference. Prosecutors said they weren’t sure of the reason but that it didn’t really matter. Fahie was guilty, they said, if he believed he was agreeing to smuggle cocaine regardless of there being any real contraband involved. The judge agreed.
In the appeal, Fahie’s attorneys argued the fictional drugs were not illegal if in their pre-transformation state — even if that state was also fictitious. A substance isn’t cocaine if it doesn’t test positive for cocaine. Fahie was conspiring to import concrete mix, the argument went.
Unreliable agent
One of the undercover agents who duped Fahie had previously worked on a public corruption case in Mexico. The investigation did progress to trial, however, because local officials found the DEA operative lacked “reliability,” according to court records.
Fahie’s trial attorneys brought the incident up during the proceedings but the judge ruled the confidential informant’s testimony admissible. The opinion of one foreign jurist, without further contextualization, was not cause to throw out key evidence, according to transcripts of the interaction.
In the appeal, Fahie’s lawyers argued prosecutors knew about the informant’s Mexican designation as unreliable and did not immediately make the defense team aware of it.
“This egregious misconduct was brought to the attention of the district judge, who refused to dismiss the charges based on government misconduct,” Fahie’s attorney Benedict Kuehe wrote in the appeal. “Andrew Fahie is entitled to a dismissal of his charges due to the egregious government misconduct and false testimony concerning the finding by a foreign tribunal that the confidential informant was unreliable. Because the entire prosecution depended on the informant’s actions and recorded statements, this error caused substantial prejudice to the defendant. Additionally, the evidence did not prove that the defendant conspired to import a substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine, requiring that the drug conspiracy conviction be vacated for insufficient evidence.”
Fahie also secretly photographed the undercover agent posing as a drug runner.
Jury jitters
After hearing evidence of “magic cocaine” gathered by an allegedly freewheeling undercover narcotics officer, a jury of Fahie’s peers found the BVI leader guilty on all counts. The judge asked each juror if their verdict was that Fahie was guilty. All said yes, according to court records.
Then a highly unusual thing happened. Two jurors, separately, said they were unsure of Fahie’s guilt. One even wondered what the next steps were in Fahie’s defense. Although not completely unprecedented, attorneys for both sides and the trial judge scrambled for a proper way forward. They needed to respect the sanctity of the jury’s decision as well as the two jurists’ post-trial misgivings.
After speaking with the two jury members, the judge was satisfied they indeed thought Fahie was guilty when they rendered their verdict.
Fahie’s attorneys framed the verdict as less than unanimous.
“Finally, the jury’s failure to unanimously agree on its verdict requires the court to declare a mistrial or remand the case with instructions for the district court to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the jury’s verdict was unanimous,” Kuehe told the appeals court.
It was not clear when the appeals court might rule on Fahie’s appeal.
