Charles Bowe – whose sister Diane Bowe is married to the late Sir Lynden Pindling’s eldest son Obie Pindling – was found guilty by a jury in Georgia. A pilot, Bowe, 35, was convicted on four seperate charges of smuggling up to 500 kilos (1,100 lbs.) of cocaine into the United States.
In a Punch newspaper exclusive, the paper reports that Bowe is talking to the DEA about cutting a deal to snitch on his drug pals in return for a shorter jail sentence.
Undercover DEA agents reportedly set a trap for Bowe. He was arrested when he flew to the US to pick up cash from a drug deal. Bowe is one of three brothers who ran Executive Flight Services, a private airport next to Nassau Airport. His two brothers, Alfonso and Frans, are also pilots. It has long been rumoured that the flight operation was a front for running drugs and laundering the proceeds of such transactions.
The brothers are believed to be minority shareholders of the compnay. The majority shareholder is an American expat.
The PLP government has been trying to keep Bowe’s arrest a secret.
They fear that his case will further damage the PLP’s image. Former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling, the father of the PLP, was himself drug-smeared and disgraced by his involvement with drug dealers.
The Bowes are originally from Exuma. Their sister Diane Bowe is an accountant and banker, a position that would be convenient for laundering the proceeds of drug dealing. She married Obie Pindling 15 years ago. They have two children.
Obie Pindling, a Bahamian lawyer, was caught up in another controversy two years ago when he was named as an accomplice in the murder of his cousin, Joy Cartwright. The young woman was allegedly embezzling the proceeds of drug transactions rather than laundering the funds as she was supposed to.
Despite a sworn statement from the man convicted of the murder, that he saw Obie shoot the woman, charges against Pindling were dropped. It is believed pressure from his family, which still exerts tremendous control over the corrupt PLP government of The Bahamas, influenced the police decision to drop the charges.
Information from the Punch and the BahamasB2B News archives
