By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
A US federal judge has declined to place on the official court record several unsolicited letters sent from outside the United States about the sprawling cocaine trafficking case involving former senior Bahamian law enforcement officers and alleged drug traffickers.
One letter purported to have been signed by “The Defendants”, however, prompting US District Judge Gregory Woods to send all of the correspondence to lawyers in the case and order defence counsel to determine whether any of it came from an accused person.
The one-page order filed in the Southern District of New York on Wednesday did not identify the letter writers, their countries of origin or the views they expressed. It also did not disclose how many letters were received, which defendants purportedly signed one of them or whether the correspondence was sent directly by an accused person or by someone claiming to act on their behalf.
Judge Woods said the court received “a number of letters from unidentified members of the public” earlier that day and that all originated outside the United States.
“The Court does not believe that correspondence of this type expressing views regarding ongoing criminal proceedings are appropriately docketed, because they play no role in the case,” he said.
However, because one submission claimed to bear the defendants’ signatures, the judge forwarded the correspondence to lawyers for the prosecution and defence.
If any letter was submitted by or on behalf of a defendant, defence lawyers must notify the court in a publicly filed letter by September 30. Otherwise, Judge Woods said the court expected to take no action.
The unusual filing came as five men await a March 1, 2027 trial over an alleged international cocaine trafficking network that US prosecutors say moved drugs through The Bahamas with protection from corrupt government officials.
They include former Royal Bahamas Police Force Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis, along with William Simeon, Luis Fernando Orozco-Toro, Ulrique Jean Baptiste and Lorielmo Steele-Pomare.
The five are charged with cocaine importation conspiracy and firearms offences. They are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Prosecutors allege the wider conspiracy operated from at least May 2021 until late 2024 and relied on corrupt Bahamian officials to receive and protect cocaine shipments arriving by air before the drugs were moved towards the United States by boat.
Curtis, who supervised police operations at airports across The Bahamas, is accused of accepting bribes to provide safe passage for cocaine shipments.
US prosecutors allege Curtis and former police sergeant Prince Albert Symonette each accepted about $10,000 in October 2023 as a downpayment for helping an anticipated 600kg cocaine shipment pass through Lynden Pindling International Airport for eventual distribution in the United States.
Curtis is also accused of claiming that an unnamed senior Bahamian politician would authorise the involvement of armed police officers in drug shipments in exchange for a $2m bribe. The politician has not been publicly identified.
Former Royal Bahamas Defence Force Chief Petty Officer Darrin Roker, another accused in the case, pleaded guilty to cocaine importation conspiracy and was sentenced in February to four years in prison. Prosecutors said he supplied traffickers with sensitive information about US Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Administration operations.
Eight other people named in the indictment, including several Bahamians, have not been arrested. The allegations against them remain unproven.
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