Federal grand jury indicts Bahamian businessman with fresh drug charges
A convicted Bahamian cocaine trafficker and politically connected businessman who survived a plane crash off the coast of Florida last month has been indicted by a federal grand jury on new drug trafficking and firearms charges.
Jonathan Eric Gardiner, 58, known as “Player,” was charged in a three-count indictment that was returned this week in the Southern District of New York. Gardiner was arrested in May after a plane carrying him and 10 others went down during a flight from Marsh Harbor, Abaco, to Grand Bahama.
The incident happened on the same day Bahamians were voting whether to return Prime Minister Philip Edward Davis and his Progressive Liberal Party to office. The party went on to win a historic, second five-year term in office.
According to the indictment, Gardiner “intentionally and knowingly” participated with others in a drug trafficking conspiracy between May 2021 through May of this year in the Southern District of New York, The Bahamas and elsewhere. Prosecutors allege that he and others conspired to import at least five kilograms of cocaine into the U.S.
Gardiner also faces charges of firearms possession in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and conspiring to possess firearms in connection with the alleged scheme. Prosecutors are seeking to seize any of Gardiner’s assets derived from his alleged drug trafficking activities, including any property used to facilitate the offenses.
Gardiner was arrested when his aircraft went down. He was found carrying $30,000 in Bahamian currency — roughly equivalent to the same amount in U.S. dollars. The money was inside a brown paper bag, labeled with the handwritten name of a Bahamian politician, according to U.S. authorities. The unnamed politician has been linked to discussions inside the Bahamian Parliament building in connection to a planned shipment of between 900 and 1,000 kilograms of cocaine. That scheme is part of a wide-ranging drug case that involves members of The Bahamas’ security forces and an alleged Colombian cocaine trafficker.
Gardiner’s arrest sent shockwaves through The Bahamas, where he had used his longstanding political ties to win government contracts.
U.S. officials previously accused Gardiner of being a central figure in an international drug trafficking network.
Gardiner had tried to get the case dismissed, with his lawyers claiming the delay in filing charges affected his ability to mount a defense.
