Illegal drug trade in the Turks and Caicos Islands involves trans-shipment of cocaine and marijuana through The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) to the United States. [1]
Then Chief Minister Norman Saunders was arrested in March 1985 together with Commerce and Development Minister Stanford Missick. [2] 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. [2] Video evidence showed Saunders accepting $20,000 from an agent. [2]
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). [2] He was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $50,000. [2]
In 2022, an outbreak of extreme violence, with over 30 murders, was attributed to a turf war between drug gangs looking to control drug trafficking routes. [3]
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population in 2023 was estimated by The World Factbook at 59,367, making it the third-largest of the British overseas territories by population. However, according to a Department of Statistics estimate in 2022, the population was 47,720.
Michael Eugene Misick is a Turks and Caicos Islander politician who was the 7th Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 15 August 2003 to 9 August 2006 and was the 1st Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 9 August 2006 to 23 March 2009. Misick is a member of the Progressive National Party (PNP) and became chief minister when his party, after eight years as the opposition party, gained two parliamentary seats in by-elections. In addition to being premier, he was also the minister for Civil Aviation, Commerce and Development, Planning, District Administration, Broadcasting Commission, Tourist Board, Turks and Caicos Investment Agency, and Tourism. Several other members of Misick's family have been politicians in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and important leaders in the PNP. Washington Misick, his brother, is the current Premier, former Chief Minister and former Minister of Finance.
Before European colonization, the Turks and Caicos Islands were inhabited by Taíno and Lucayan peoples. The first recorded European sighting of the islands now known as the Turks and Caicos occurred in 1512. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control. For many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor, and have remained a separate autonomous British Overseas Territory since. In August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands' self-government following allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections.
Politics of the Turks and Caicos Islands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby as of August 9, 2006 the Premier is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The islands are an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom. The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes the Turks and Caicos Islands on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Council.
The Progressive National Party is a political party in the Turks and Caicos Islands, currently led by Washington Misick. The PNP holds 14 of the 15 elected seats in the House of Assembly and has been the government since 20 Feb 2021.
Oswald O'Neil Skippings is a Turks and Caicos Islander politician who served as the 2nd Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 19 June 1980 to 4 November 1980 and again from 3 March 1988 to 3 April 1991.
Norman B. Saunders is a Turks and Caicos Islander former politician who served as the 3rd Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 4 November 1980 to 28 March 1985. Saunders is also the longest-serving Member of the House of Assembly in the Turks and Caicos Islands, nearing 50 years of service, the first Chief Minister to win back-to-back elections in 1980 and 1984, the only ever politician in the nation to win as an independent candidate, and the first leader of the opposition.
Emmanuel Misick is a politician from the Turks and Caicos Islands. He served on a four-member interim Advisory Council from July 1986 to 3 March 1988 after the then-Chief Minister, Norman Saunders, and a member of his cabinet were forced to resign and ministerial government in the territory was suspended. He was a member of the National Democratic Alliance.
The illegal drug trade in The Bahamas involves trans-shipment of cocaine and marijuana through The Bahamas to the United States.
General elections were held in Turks and Caicos Islands on 9 November 2012. The PNP won the election, winning eight seats with the PDM winning seven. The PNP won most of its seats by narrow margins over the PDM, while the PDM won its seats by wide margins over the PNP, with the result that despite winning fewer seats and thereby losing the election, the PDM garnered more overall votes nationwide.
Akierra Mary Deanne Missick is a Turks and Caicos Islands lawyer and politician. She served as Deputy Premier and Minister of Education from 2012 to 2016 and Leader of Government Business and Minister of Infrastructure from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Progressive National Party, Missick has served as the Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for Leeward & Long Bay ED5 since 2012.
The Constitution of the Turks and Caicos Islands, in its present form, was passed in 2011.
Aviation Drug-Trafficking Control Act of 1984 is a United States Federal law amending the Federal Aviation Act of 1958. The statutory law authorized criminal penalties for the unlawful aerial transportation of controlled substances. The Act of Congress mandated the revocation of aircraft registrations and airman certificates by the Federal Aviation Administration whereas an aircraft aviator knowingly engages in the transit of illicitly used drugs. The Act established authority and a statute of limitations for the reissuance of airman certificates by the United States Secretary of Transportation.
Rosita Beatrice Missick-Butterfield, was a Turks and Caicos Islander who served as the first woman Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
General elections were held in the Turks and Caicos Islands on 3 March 1988. They were the first after the suspension of the islands' constitution between 1986 and 1988, which followed Chief Minister Norman Saunders leaving office in March 1985 after being arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling and the next Chief Minister Nathaniel Francis resigning in July 1986 after a British parliamentary inquiry accused him of corruption.
Cannabis is illegal in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Although the islands are a British Overseas Territory and their legal system is based on English common law, the islands are a separate legal jurisdiction to the United Kingdom and have their own laws.
The Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment is the home defence unit of the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is a territorial infantry and engineer reserve unit of the British Armed Forces that was formed in 2020. The Regiment has an authorized strength level objective of 46 personnel, akin to that of a platoon-sized unit.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the Turks and Caicos Islands is part of the ongoing global viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was confirmed to have reached the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands on 23 March 2020, and the first death occurred on 5 April. On 12 May, all cases were declared resolved, but on 20 June, new cases had been discovered. On 4 July 2021, all cases resolved again. On 8 July, new cases were discovered.
Nigel John Dakin (born 28 February 1964 is a British diplomat and soldier who served as Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands between 15 July 2019 and 29 March 2023.
The second W. Misick ministry began on 24 February 2021, four days after Washington Misick was sworn in as Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands by Governor Nigel Dakin, where he invited him to form a new administration following the 2021 general election, in which the Progressive National Party was voted into power with a supermajority of 14 seats in the House of Assembly. Misick led government once before after the 1991 general election.