(Corrects “island” to “country” in paragraph 12.)
By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – The Bahamas accused “rogue” DEA agents of operating illegally on its soil and raised the issue with the Trump administration last week, the country’s ambassador to the US told Reuters on Thursday.
Bahamian officials lodged the grievance on Friday in a meeting in Washington with the US Department of Justice, Wendall Jones, the Bahamian ambassador to the US, said.
The complaint threatens to strain US-Bahamian law enforcement cooperation, reviving questions about sovereignty as a major US drug trafficking prosecution rattles politics in the country.
The Bahamas is not the only country to lodge such objections. In April, Mexican officials alleged that two US agents who died in a car crash that month were working in the country without authorization.
US investigators have indicted more than half a dozen Bahamians over the last 18 months, including senior members of the country’s police and defense forces. They are accused of participating in an operation to smuggle drugs from South America through the Bahamas to the US.
Jones said the indictments did not factor into the Bahamas’ complaint alleging illegal Drug Enforcement Administration operations.
“We made a general complaint of the behavior of rogue DEA agents in the Bahamas who operate without the consent of the government or the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and that is a matter of law, matter of treaty,” Jones said in an interview.
The DEA said it is committed to working with Bahamian authorities to dismantle drug trafficking organizations that pose a threat to the region.
“DEA personnel operate under the authority and oversight of the US Chief of Mission, which governs US law enforcement investigations in the Bahamas,” a DEA spokesperson said.
The US State Department and the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.
The Bahamian newspaper the Tribune first reported news of the complaint. It quoted the US ambassador to the Bahamas, Herschel Walker, who dismissed the accusation as “fake news.”
A close US ally located just 50 miles from Miami, the Bahamas authorizes seven DEA agents to operate in the country, Jones said.
Jones did not provide an estimate for the number of DEA agents believed to be operating without Bahamian government authorization, but said it has happened “over the many years,” adding that the Trump administration told Bahamian officials that it would investigate the matter.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Emily Green, David Gaffen and Thomas Derpinghaus)
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