The Tribune

By INSIGHT TEAM

THE arrest of Jonathan 'Player' Gardiner after the Election Day plane crash has revealed the vast scale of the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) ongoing investigations into US-bound narcotics trafficking through The Bahamas, The Tribune can reveal today.

Gardiner’s arrest links him not only to the November 2024 indictment of former Royal Bahamian Police Force Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis, and 12 others, but also to a charge sheet in Atlanta, Georgia, where 14 individuals are accused, in total, of 29 offences relating to firearms, money laundering, robbery, drug trafficking and conspiracy charges.

Two of the alleged senior members of the Georgia Drug Trafficking Organisation (DTO) are, according to an affidavit supporting trafficking and conspiracy charges recently brought against Gardiner, alleged to have conspired with the 58-year-old to export cocaine into the US through The Bahamas.

In the May 15 affidavit by a DEA special agent, the two men who allegedly conspired with Gardiner are identified only as co-conspirators ‘CC-1’ and ‘CC-2.’ But The Tribune can today identify the two men as the alleged leader of the Georgia DTO, Charles Dunn (CC-1), aka ‘Silk,’ and his key lieutenant, alleged drug trafficker Ernest Mordeau Deas, (CC-2), aka ‘Shorty,’ who allegedly met Gardiner in Nassau to discuss a shipment of cocaine.

They are now facing sentences of up to life imprisonment in Atlanta. Both have denied the charges.

Three other Bahamians named in the May 14 affidavit by DEA Special Agent Michael Coleman are also named in the November 2024 indictment of former RBPF Curtis, his associate Sergeant Prince Albert Symonette, and others. The indictment accuses Bahamian officials, including members of law enforcement, of facilitating drug trafficking operations. Prosecutors allege that traffickers used The Bahamas as a transit point for smuggling large quantities of cocaine into the United States with the help of Bahamian officials.

One of those named is alleged to have facilitated cocaine trafficking from The Bahamas into the US using 'go-fast' boats from Bimini to Miami. He is also alleged to have worked closely with one of two pilots indicted with Curtis, and named in the May 15 DEA Gardiner indictment.  

According to special agent Coleman’s affidavit, the pilot is alleged to have driven a DEA cooperating source (CS) and another man to the meeting at the Bahamian Parliament Building where they allegedly met a politician identified only as ‘Politician-1,’ to discuss an upcoming shipment of 1,000-kilograms of cocaine.

According to the DEA affidavit, Colombian Luis Fernando Orozco-Toro, who is accused of being a drug trafficker in the Curtis indictment, knew Gardiner and is alleged to have told an undercover DEA confidential source, in a secretly videotaped meeting, that ‘Gardiner was currently building government buildings; and claimed that Gardiner was reportedly trying to keep his involvement below the radar of law enforcement.”

Last week, Finance Minister Michael Halkitis confirmed he had previously served as a director for Top Notch Builders after initially denying any involvement with the company when initially  questioned by The Tribune.

FNM Opposition Leader Michael Pintard called for Halkitis’ resignation.

Gardiner is now under the jurisdiction of the US Attorneys, Southern District of New York (SDNY). There has been no word on upcoming court appearances.