The Bahamas complained to the US Justice Department on Friday that DEA agents operated there without government or police consent, Ambassador Wendall Jones said. He said Washington would investigate; the dispute could strain law-enforcement cooperation.
The Bahamas authorizes seven DEA agents to operate there, Jones said. He gave no estimate of how many agents he believes are operating without Bahamian authorization, but said it had happened “over the many years.”
US investigators have indicted more than half a dozen Bahamians in the past 18 months, including senior police and defense-force members, accusing them of taking part in an operation to smuggle drugs from South America through The Bahamas to the US. Jones said those indictments did not factor into the DEA complaint. The State Department, Justice Department and DEA did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment; The Tribune reported that US Ambassador to The Bahamas Herschel Walker called the accusation “fake news.”
