The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK


Tribune Freeport Reporter


dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

US Ambassador to The Bahamas Herschel Walker responded yesterday to House Speaker Patricia Deveaux’s dismissal of explosive allegations in a US criminal complaint against Bahamian Eric Gardiner as “frivolous and malicious gossip,” saying: “Wait and see.”

Asked about Ms Deveaux’s comments during a press conference in Grand Bahama, Mr Walker stressed that the matter remains under investigation.

"You know, it is funny because people say things like that, but you know it's an open investigation, and I think people know when it is an open investigation, you just wait and see what's going to happen," he said.

"You really don't want to say anything about it because you don't want to hurt either side.”

The allegations did not emerge from an obscure legal filing. They were made in a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, one of the United States’ most prominent federal jurisdictions, whose prosecutors have handled major financial crime, organised crime, public corruption and international narcotics cases.

Gardiner, who is suspected of drug trafficking in the United States, was arrested by US authorities after the May 12 Election Day plane crash off the Florida coast.

Gardiner was among 11 survivors on a flight from Abaco to Grand Bahama. According to court documents, investigators found $30,000 in cash in a cross-body bag bearing the name of a senior Bahamian politician identified in the complaint only as “Politician 1.”

Earlier this week, Opposition Leader Michael Pintard was blocked by Ms Deveaux from tabling documents in the House of Assembly relating to the US criminal complaint filed against Gardiner.

Ms Deveaux described the allegations as “frivolous and malicious gossip” and ruled that the matter should not be debated in Parliament.

When asked about the Speaker’s comments, Mr Walker said he does not comment on open investigations.

“That’s why I don’t really comment on things like that because being an open investigation, who knows? And we don’t want to just put things out there that is just not true,” he said.

Federal prosecutors allege Gardiner, known by the alias “Player,” was a major participant in a Bahamas-based cocaine trafficking network that supplied drugs from Colombia and elsewhere for shipment into the United States.

According to the criminal complaint, Gardiner is accused of conspiring to import at least five kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

Prosecutors allege he served as a foreign supplier for a Georgia-based drug trafficking organisation and helped facilitate the movement of multi-kilogram cocaine shipments from The Bahamas to South Florida.

The complaint also alleges that undercover DEA agents posing as members of a drug cartel met with a high-ranking Bahamian politician inside the House of Assembly building to discuss a proposed cocaine transhipment operation through The Bahamas.

Investigators claim the politician expressed a willingness to assist the operation in exchange for financial benefits.