Then Chief Minister Norman Saunders was arrested in March 1985 together with Commerce and Development Minister Stanford Missick.[1] Saunders was alleged by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to have accepted $30,000 from undercover agents to ensure safe passage of drugs by permitting safe stopover refuelling of drug flights from Colombia to the United States.[1] Video evidence showed Saunders accepting $20,000 from an agent.[1]
Saunders was convicted in July 1985 of conspiracy, though he was acquitted of the charge of conspiring to import drugs into the United States (which Missick was also convicted of).[1] He was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $50,000.[1]
^ abcde Griffith, Ivelaw L. (1996-7), "Illicit Arms Trafficking, Corruption, and Governance in the Caribbean", Dickinson Journal of International Law, pp495-6.