PHILIPSBURG:--- A former immigration officer who was fired from her job after the Prosecutor's Office confiscated a boat registered in her name that was smuggling illegal drugs from St. Maarten wants to know where is the boat that was seized by the Prosecutor's Office. The former immigration officer said the real owner of the boat died but she was asked to register the boat since the man did not have the proper documentations for St. Maarten. "Before I registered the boat by the name of Blue Moon, a blue sail boat in my name, I asked my boss if that would compromise my job and if it was alright for me to do so. My boss told me there was no problem in registering a boat for anyone." The former immigration officer who is still jobless said the prosecutor charged her with import, export, and distribution of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin as well as immigration corruption. She said in 2007 she was acquitted on all the drug charges but the court found her guilty of immigration corruption because they found a letter of invitation on her job that she wrote inviting a Haitian national to St. Maarten.
The former law enforcement officer said ever since 2007 she has been trying to get back the boat that was confiscated by the prosecution but to date she cannot trace the boat. The woman said a certain detective told her a "Dutch man" claimed the boat and it was sold.
However, just recently a resident of St. Peters found some boats including "Blue Moon" stored at JMC Marina and Boat Yard in Sandy Ground. The well-known resident posted photos of the boat and the boat yard where these boats are being stored on Facebook demanding that the Attorney General of St. Maarten tell the people of St. Maarten why items such as boats that were confiscated are stored on the French side. He is also calling on the Kingdom Council of Ministers to order an investigation on the Prosecutor's Office of St. Maarten.
SMN News contacted an agent of JMC Boat Yard in Sandy Ground who confirmed that the Coast Guard dropped off three boats at their place since 2008 and never returned to check on it. The agent who preferred to remain anonymous said that one of the three boats had be crushed because it rotted. He said right now Blue Moon and another white boat is there on the premises but they can no longer see the name of the boat because it's covered with grass.
SMN News contacted Attorney General Taco Stein earlier this week and he said the name of the boat did not ring a bell and he could not remember anything about the boat being seized. On Saturday SMN News contacted Stein again and told him when the boat was seized and from whom it was seized and the year in which the boat was seized and which former immigration officer was prosecuted and acquitted. Stein said that was six years ago when he was the Chief Prosecutor of St. Maarten but he could not remember the case. He instructed SMN News reporter to contact KPSM because in 2006-2007 immigration was under the Police Department.
It should be noted that items seized on the Dutch side cannot leave the territory unless written authorization is given by the Minister of Justice. In these cases it is not known if former Minister of Justice David Dick or Magali Jacoba gave permission to the Attorney General and Prosecutor's Office to store the seized items on the French side of the island.
SMN News contacted former Minister of Justice Roland Duncan who spent almost three years in office as the Minister of Justice of St. Maarten to inquire if he knew of the boats that were seized by the Prosecutor's Office and is stored on the French side of the island. Duncan said that two years after being in office he was informed by Attorney General Dick Piar that they had items that were seized that had to be sold. The former Minister of Justice said that he suggested to the Attorney General to contract one of three companies to hold a public auction and the monies be placed in St. Maarten's Crime Fund. Duncan said he suggested that either SOAB, KPMG, or Price Waterhouse Coopers be contracted to conduct the public auction if the Prosecutor's Office did not have the manpower or knowledge to conduct public auctions. The former Minister of Justice further explained that he knew of the "Slipanchenco" case where Naf. 8 million was seized. He said most of that money went to the former Netherlands Antilles and he had to fight to get two million guilders out of it for St. Maarten. In that same case, Duncan said there were land, boats, and vehicles that had to be sold by public auction but up to when he left office that was not done. Duncan even referred SMN News reporter to the Attorney General of Curacao Dick Piar since he is the one that gave him the information on the seized items. The boats belonging to Slipanchenco can be seen at Bobby's Marina Boat yard while there are others allegedly stored Port de Plaisance.
When SMN News contacted Piar on Saturday he said he could not comment on anything relating to St. Maarten and the person that knows everything about St. Maarten is Taco Stein and he is the one that has to comment. It is still not clear how many vehicles, boats, land, and other moveable and immoveable items that were seized over the years by the Prosecutor's Office are still sitting some place losing its value while St. Maarten, especially the Ministry of Justice, is badly in need of monies since they too had to slash their 2014 budget in order for the CFT to approve it.
