The Prime Minister of British Virgin IslandsAndrew Arturo Fahie, and the director of Caribbean archipelago ports, Oleanvine Maynard, were arrested Thursday in Miami, Florida, for drug trafficking and money laundering,

The news was confirmed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in a statement. The arrest came after two high-ranking officials met with agents from that force who pretending to be Mexican drug traffickersthe Miami Herald indicated that U.S. authorities were mentioned.

According to the same source, Fahie and Maynard attended the meeting to see the alleged shipment of $ 700,000 in cash they hope to receive for helping traffic cocaine in the United States through British territory.

A third man, Kadeem Maynard, son of the director of ports, was arrested in connection with the same case, but not in Miami.

“Anyone involved in bringing dangerous drugs into the United States is liable, whatever your positionDEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement.

British Virgin Islands Governor John Rankin reported on the Prime Minister’s arrest in a statement, saying it had nothing to do with the ongoing British investigation into corruption in Fahie’s government.

The British Virgin Islands, with a population of approximately 35,000 inhabitants, are located east of Puerto Rico and are known as one of the major tax havens in the world.

The Caribbean archipelago has its own government, but Queen Elizabeth II appointed a governor on the recommendation of the British government.

What do the British Virgin Islands look like?

The British Virgin Islands is a British Overseas Territory. They are located in eastern Puerto Rico. They make up the so -called archipelago of the Virgin Islands, which it shares with the United States.

On the whole they are 40 islands of paradise beaches scattered in the Caribbean Sea, although only 11 are inhabited. Its total population is 27,800, most of them living on the island of Tortola, where the capital, Road Town, is located.

This Caribbean archipelago leads the NGO Tax Justice Network’s classification of the most ambiguous tax jurisdictions in the world, followed by the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

They are regularly mentioned in newspaper statements about world tax avoidanceespecially in FinCEN or the Panama Papers.

That territory generates more than 51% of its revenue for registration of foreign companiesof which there are 950,000 according to an estimate published on the archipelago government website.

British territoriality, defense and foreign affairs are under the responsibility of the United Kingdom.

With information from agencies

DB