trafficking

Ever since the general election, much of the public conversation surrounding Jonathan Gardiner case has focused on the plane crash, drug trafficking allegations, the mysterious “Politician-1” and questions surrounding government contracts.

But also inside the court documents is a revelation that the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), confidential sources allegedly operated inside the Bahamas for at least three years as part of an undercover investigation into a drug trafficking network that investigators say stretched between the Bahamas and the United States.

That raises questions that extend beyond Gardiner.

What does it say about American confidence in Bahamian institutions if United States investigators allegedly spent years building a case through confidential sources operating on Bahamian soil?

And did Bahamian authorities know?

For major federal investigations to last three years, investigators must have believed they were pursuing something significant, which requires time, money, manpower and patience.

Investigators must have felt they were dealing with an organized network rather than isolated criminal activities.

It means the American authorities view the Bahamas as central to a long-term narcotics investigation in the United States.

The Bahamas’ geography has always made it attractive to traffickers. With lots of islands and cays that sit just miles from the United States, vast stretches of water are difficult to monitor continuously. Smugglers have long seen the country as a transit point.

Their long-term investigations could show their concerns about networks, facilitators and relationships.

Already, public discussion has moved beyond Gardiner and toward issues of contracts, political associations and the mysterious figure identified only as Politician-1 in court documents.

Whether those questions ultimately lead anywhere remains to be seen, but the damage is already occurring.

Instead of discussing the Davis administration’s second-term agenda, much of the national conversation is being consumed by an American drug investigation.

That is a problem for the government.

The Bahamas has spent years trying to strengthen its standing with international regulators, investors and financial institutions. Any suggestion that the country was a major focus of a years-long DEA investigation inevitably attracts attention beyond Nassau.

People outside of the Bahamas will judge the country by the headlines it generates.

The larger question is what the DEA investigation reveals about the country’s systems, weaknesses, corruption and relationships that spurred American investigators to spend three years looking so closely at the Bahamas in the first place.

Court filings from an indictment was unsealed in a Southern District Court of New York where two police officers—Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis and Sergeant Prince Symonette—and a defense force officer Chief Petty Officer Darren Roker– will stand trial for cocaine importation conspiracy, firearms use, and carrying and possession and firearms conspiracy.

The big picture

The officers with ten other people, are mentioned in the indictment and are accused of trafficking tons of cocaine through the Bahamas into the United States for distribution, since May 2021, “with the support and protection of corrupt Bahamian government officials,” and “provided sensitive law enforcement information to drug traffickers,” [and] “protected them from investigation and arrest.”

Driving the news

Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis is in charge of the Lynden Pindling International Airport and is accused of accepting bribes from traffickers to facilitate the transportation of cocaine while “providing safe passage for the traffickers and their cocaine loads through the Nassau Airport and elsewhere in the Bahamas.”

• According to the unsealed document, Sergeant Prince Symonette of the Royal Bahamas Police Force worked with Curtis and traffickers to transport the drug by air and sea while accepting bribes “for streamlining customs clearance for aircraft,” receiving bribery money of $10,000 as a down payment.
• Chief Petty Officer Darren Roker of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force received $10,000 in bribery money as a down payment to alert traffickers about sensitive operations by the US Coast Guard and OPBAT.

State of play

The names of several other pilots, a purported Bahamian government official, and Columbian officials appear in the document:

• Riccardo Davis, a purported Bahamian official allegedly used his influence to authorize trafficking. According to the indictment, he along with Curtis and Symonette “planned a trip to the United States to receive approximately $1.5m in US currency, which would represent an advanced payment on an agreed-upon at least approximately 500-kilogram load of cocaine to be imported through The Bahamas into the United States.”
• William Simeon is accused of being a trafficker, working with “certain corrupt RBPF officials and others” to transport cocaine by air from South America.
• Theodore Adderley is accused of being a trafficker working with “certain corrupt RBPF officials and others” to transport cocaine by air from South America.
• Joshua Scavella, a pilot, was accused of coordinating shipments and working with Simeon and Adderley.
• Lorielmo Steele-Pomare is a Colombian citizen and an alleged narcotics broker, who introduced Colombian and Bahamian traffickers.
• Luis Fernando Orozco-Toro is a Colombian who ships cocaine from South America to the US from the Bahamas.
• Davon Rolle is an alleged trafficker who facilitates the operation “typically by boat, including go fast boast from Bimini to Miami” according to the document.
• Darren Ferguson, a former pilot, operates as a middleman.
• Domonick Delancy, a pilot “flies cocaine shipments from South America to the Bahamas.”
• Donald Ferguson II, a pilot who “works closely with Domonick Delancy.”

Context

The indictment shocked the country and became one of many corruption claims plaguing the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Curtis has implicated a politician in the dealings claiming the unnamed politician authorized the shipment of narcotics from The Bahamas to USA for $2 million.

Between the lines

Curtis and Roker were caught in Florida but will be transported to New York for trial.

Featured Image: Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis (Left) and Chief Petty Officer Darren Roker

Only the strong survived the boat tragedy on Sunday when 17 Haitians including a child died when a human smuggling vessel capsized in Bahamian waters on their way to Florida.

The dead included 15 women, one man, and a child. The other 25 passengers were rescued from the 30-foot speedboat which overturned in choppy waters in Nassau.

It was reported that 60 people may have been on board the boat and authorities may be searching for up to eighteen missing people, unaccounted for.

In a picture issued by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, only men were seen sitting atop the capsized vessel, awaiting rescue by divers.

A woman was pulled from the hull of the boat and was reported to have survived due to an air pocket.

Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander said divers heard a knocking from the hull of the boat and found one woman.

“I think that’s what kept her alive.”

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he sympathized with the parents of the victims.

“This new drama saddens the whole nation,” he said. “While sympathizing with the parents of the victims, I launch, once again, an appeal for national reconciliation in order to solve the problems that are driving away, far from our soil, our brothers, our sisters, our children.”

The passengers who survived the ordeal said they paid smugglers $3000 to $8000 to catch the boat ride to Florida. Authorities have since arrested two Bahamian traffickers who are known for other criminal acts.