The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE opposition leader yesterday demanded that Prime Minister Philip Davis tell the country what his government has done to find out who “Politician-1” is. 

“The prime minister should bring clarity to this matter of who politician one is,” FNM leader Michael Pintard said, “and what investigations he has initiated to determine who is a senior politician from 2024 who may have received $2 million to influence police to look the other way while drugs move to the Bahamas.”

Mr Pintard brushed aside West Grand Bahama MP Kingsley Smith’s denial that he is Politician-1, saying it was irrelevant to the FNM.

“What’s relevant is what is the prime minister doing?” Mr Pintard said. “The same prime minister who said he would shake every tree to make sure there are no bad apples.”

Mr Smith had little to say when reporters pressed him outside Parliament yesterday. “Do no evil, fear no evil. Simple as that,” he said as he walked away.

On Tuesday, Mr Smith told The Tribune he was not Politician-1 and had never met anyone in a Parliament building to discuss drug shipments.

“Not friggin’ me!” he said. “Like I say, I deny that. I don’t do nonsense man.”

No court filing or Bahamian authority has publicly identified Politician-1, and the person has not been charged with any offence.

In a filing in a New York federal court on Friday, US prosecutors described Politician-1 for the first time as an incumbent male MP who was re-elected on May 12. They said cash recovered from Jonathan “Player” Gardiner when he was arrested was being delivered to Politician-1 on “the day of his reelection”, and that some of the money may have been intended as a bribe.

Gardiner was on a plane flying from Marsh Harbour, Abaco, to Grand Bahama on Election Day when it crashed into the sea off the Florida coast. When he was rescued, he was carrying about $30,000 in Bahamian currency, including an envelope bearing Politician-1’s name. Gardiner has pleaded not guilty.

Earlier filings in the case alleged that Politician-1 met an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration source and a drug pilot inside a Parliament building in October 2024 to discuss a cocaine shipment through The Bahamas.

US court documents also identify Politician-1 as the same politician referred to in a November 2024 indictment of former Royal Bahamas Police Force Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis and others. That indictment alleged that Curtis claimed a high-ranking Bahamian politician would authorise Bahamian police to help with cocaine shipments in exchange for $2 million. Curtis has pleaded not guilty.

A passenger on the Election Day flight has claimed that Mr Smith helped arrange travel for her family after a ticketing mix-up. Mr Smith has not publicly discussed his role in arranging the flight.

The Davis administration has said it has repeatedly asked the US government to identify Politician-1 but has not been given a name. The government has said it does not know who the person is.

In June, Mr Pintard led opposition members to police headquarters to deliver a formal complaint asking police to investigate the allegations.

Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles previously told The Tribune that a special police team was formed to investigate allegations in the US criminal complaint involving Gardiner. She told reporters last month that the probe remains active but she has no update on its findings.