A NEW US judge has been assigned to hear the upcoming drug trafficking trial involving former senior Bahamian law enforcement officers and alleged drug traffickers.
A one-page order filed in the Southern District of New York by US District Judge Lewis J Liman confirmed the reassignment.
In the order, Judge Liman directed US prosecutors to file a status letter by October 13 outlining all upcoming deadlines in the case.
He also directed the parties to meet and confer before the letter is filed to determine whether a conference would be efficient and beneficial to the court.
The status letter must include either the parties’ joint position or separate positions on whether the court should hold a conference.
The filing came as six 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, Eric Gardiner, Luis Fernando Orozco-Toro, Ulrique Jean Baptiste and Lorielmo Steele-Pomare.
The men 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 said Gardiner, operating from The Bahamas, could supply more than 2,000 kilograms of cocaine at a time to trafficking organisations.
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.
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