Son of former BVI Ports director held without bond in Florida

The son of a former British Virgin Islands official will remain jailed without bond while he awaits trial on charges that he and his mother conspired with former BVI Premier Andrew Fahie to smuggle millions of dollars worth of cocaine through the territory.

Kadeem Maynard, 31, was taken into custody on April 28 on St. Thomas, and indicted on charges of conspiracy to import a controlled substance, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, and attempted money laundering. If convicted, he is facing a minimum 10-year sentence and the possibility of life in prison.

Also charged in the conspiracy is Maynard’s mother, BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard, 60, and Fahie, 51.

On Thursday, Kathleen Williams, a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Florida, granted the parties’ motion to delay the trial to give both sides more time to review evidence in the complex case, and scheduled the trial date for Jan. 17.

Fahie and the Maynards were arrested in a sting operation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and agents said they recorded the trio discussing plans to help a self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah group ship Colombian cocaine through BVI ports to the U.S. undetected by law enforcement.

Oleanvine Maynard and Fahie were arrested on April 28 at a Florida airport after undercover agents took them aboard a plane and showed them bags of fake cash as payment for their participation in the scheme, according to court records.

Court documents do not specify where on St. Thomas Kadeem Maynard was taken into custody, but prosecutors said Maynard had traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands to meet with the “sister” of a confidential informant, “to pick up a satellite phone, $30,000 for bribes, and to arrange for the delivery of his cocaine from St. Thomas to Tortola.”

Oleanvine Maynard is the only one of the three co-defendants who stipulated to being jailed without bond while she awaits trial, and she is currently being held at the federal detention center in Miami, according to court records and the Bureau of Prisons website.