The leader of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has been arrested for alleged drug smuggling and money laundering in the US. Premier Andrew Fahie was detained in Miami by US agents posing as cocaine traffickers from a Mexican drug cartel. He agreed a $700,000 (£560,000) payment to allow traffickers to use BVI ports with an undercover informant, charges filed in the US said. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said she was “appalled” by the allegations. Mr Fahie, the elected head of government of the British overseas territory, was arrested by US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials in Florida, alongside senior BVI port official Oleanvine Maynard.

A third person, Kadeem Maynard – Ms Maynard’s son – was also arrested on Thursday in connection with the undercover DEA case. The arrests were made after DEA agents pretended to be cocaine traffickers from Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel – said to be the largest supplier of illegal drugs to the US market and formerly run by now-imprisoned drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.(BBC)…[+]