The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

MONTHS after a special police team began investigating allegations in a US criminal complaint involving Jonathan Eric Gardiner, Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the probe remains active but she has no update on its findings.

“I can tell you that we are continuing our investigations as mandated, as I have already mandated for SIB and when they are in a position to update me, they will do so, and I will then update the government on our findings. At this time, I do not have an update,” she told reporters on Friday.

Her comments come as public attention turns to Gardiner’s trial, scheduled for March, in a case that has sparked weeks of political fallout.

Gardiner, also known as “Player”  was arrested after surviving an Election Day plane crash off Florida in May. He is now facing drug tracking charges in New York along with several others.

US court filings tied to Gardiner’s arrest have revealed details of a three-year DEA investigation involving undercover work in The Bahamas.

Last month, the government complained to US authorities that undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents had operated in The Bahamas without the knowledge or permission of local authorities. A Bahamian delegation raised the matter with US Justice Department officials.

Asked on Friday to respond to US investigative activity in The Bahamas without police’s knowledge, Commissioner Knowles said the matter was already addressed by the minister and she would not speak to it further.

The same document alleges that a Bahamian politician met inside the Parliament building in October 2024 with an undercover DEA source and a pilot to discuss a cocaine shipment reportedly worth $30m.

The politician is the same unnamed figure referenced in a November 2024 indictment issued by the US Southern District of New York.

The allegations triggered weeks of political fallout and prompted Opposition Leader Michael Pintard and other FNM MPs to formally ask police in June to investigate the matter.

At the time, Commissioner Knowles told The Tribune the matter was already under investigation and that officers were speaking with several people, although she declined to disclose details.

Gardiner’s New York case links him to the November 2024 indictment of former police chief superintendent Elvis Curtis and 12 others.

That indictment accuses Bahamian officials, including law enforcement officers, of helping facilitate drug trafficking operations.

So far, only one defendant has admitted his role in that alleged plot: former Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer Darrin Alexander Roker, 51.

However, a second defendant, Colombian national Lorielmo Steele-Pomare is set to change his plea in a hearing set for November 5. US prosecutors describe Steele-Pomare as a ‘narcotics broker’ who introduces Colombian and Bahamian drug traffickers so they can work together to distribute cocaine to the US.