Bahamas Accuses 'Rogue' U.S. DEA Agents of Operating Illegally, Lodges Formal Complaint With U.S. Justice Department

By Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 — The Bahamas has lodged a formal complaint alleging that "rogue" agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have operated on Bahamian territory without the consent of the government or the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Ambassador Wendall Jones told Reuters on Thursday.

The grievance was presented last Friday during a meeting in Washington with officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, Jones said. Bahamian officials said the matter raises sensitive questions about sovereignty and could complicate cooperation between U.S. and Bahamian law enforcement at a time when a major drug-trafficking prosecution has unsettled politics in the country.

U.S. investigators have indicted more than half a dozen Bahamians in the past 18 months — including senior members of the country's police and defense forces — accusing them of participating in a scheme to smuggle drugs from South America through the Bahamas to the United States. Jones said those indictments were not the basis for the complaint about unauthorized DEA activity.

"We made a general complaint of the behavior of rogue DEA agents in the Bahamas who operate without the consent of the government or the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and that is a matter of law, matter of treaty," Jones said.

The DEA responded that it remains committed to working with Bahamian authorities to dismantle drug-trafficking organizations that threaten the region. "DEA personnel operate under the authority and oversight of the U.S. Chief of Mission, which governs U.S. law enforcement investigations in the Bahamas," a DEA spokesperson said.

The U.S. State Department and the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment. The Bahamian newspaper The Tribune first reported the complaint and quoted the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, Herschel Walker, who dismissed the allegations as "fake news."

Jones said the Bahamas officially authorizes seven DEA agents to operate in the country, but declined to estimate how many agents might have worked without Bahamian government authorization. He added that such unauthorized activity has occurred "over the many years," and that the Trump administration told Bahamian officials it would investigate the matter.

The dispute mirrors other recent regional concerns about U.S. agents operating abroad: in April, Mexican officials alleged two U.S. agents who died in a car crash that month had been working in Mexico without authorization.

As the Bahamas pushes for clarification and possible disciplinary or diplomatic action, the case highlights the tension between international counter-narcotics cooperation and national sovereignty when foreign law enforcement operates on another country's soil.