The Bahamas accused unauthorised US Drug Enforcement Administration personnel of operating illegally on its territory and formally raised the issue with the Trump administration. Ambassador Wendall Jones said Bahamian officials lodged the grievance during a meeting at the Justice Department in Washington.
Jones described the complaint as a sovereignty and treaty matter. He said DEA personnel may work in the archipelago only with permission from the Bahamian government or the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and called those acting outside that framework rogue agents.
The ambassador did not estimate how many personnel may have operated without authorisation, but said the alleged practice had occurred over many years. He added that US officials told the Bahamian delegation the administration would investigate the complaint.
The Bahamas authorises seven DEA agents to work in the country, which lies about 50 miles from Miami and maintains close security ties with Washington. The dispute therefore risks straining an established law-enforcement partnership against regional drug trafficking.
A DEA spokesperson said agency personnel operate under the authority and oversight of the US chief of mission, which governs American law-enforcement investigations in the Bahamas. The State Department and Justice Department did not provide separate public responses.
US Ambassador Herschel Walker dismissed the allegation as false after the Tribune newspaper first disclosed the complaint. The opposing statements leave unresolved whether particular undercover activities complied with the consent and coordination required by bilateral arrangements.
The dispute unfolds while US prosecutors pursue more than half a dozen Bahamians, including senior police and defence members, over an alleged cocaine route from South America through the Bahamas. Jones said those indictments were not the basis for Nassau's complaint.
