By Leandra Rolle, Tribune Chief Reporter
Email: lrolle@tribunemedia.net
A Colombian national facing federal narcotics allegations for allegedly collaborating with a network of corrupt Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) officials to smuggle multi-tonne shipments of cocaine through Bahamian territory en route to the United States is scheduled to formally alter his court plea just months before a high-stakes public trial involving two former senior Bahamian law enforcement figures is set to commence.
Identified as Lorielmo Steele-Pomare, who also operates under the alias “Steele”, the suspected narcotics broker will appear for an official change-of-plea proceeding at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at 11 a.m. on November 5. The hearing date was finalized after U.S. Attorney Jonathan Bodansky submitted a formal motion requesting the court schedule the session on any calendar day between November 2 and 5, a request that received immediate judicial approval.
Under standard U.S. federal criminal procedure, a change-of-plea hearing is the official proceeding where a defendant who has previously entered a not-guilty plea can formally admit to criminal charges, almost always as part of a negotiated plea agreement struck with federal prosecutors.
If Steele-Pomare proceeds to enter a guilty plea as anticipated, he will become only the second defendant out of the 13 individuals named in the 2024 federal indictment to accept a plea deal. The first cooperating defendant was Darrin Alexander Roker, a former Chief Petty Officer with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, who pleaded guilty to cocaine importation conspiracy charges and was later handed a four-year federal prison sentence. Back in February of this year, federal prosecutors notified the court that active negotiations for additional potential plea agreements were underway in an effort to resolve portions of the sprawling case ahead of the scheduled public trial.
Court documents outline that Steele-Pomare operated as a key middleman in the transnational narcotics network, acting as a liaison connecting Colombian cocaine producers and Bahamian trafficking operatives to coordinate cross-border distribution routes into the U.S. He is further accused of orchestrating both air and sea-based cocaine shipments, maintaining close working ties with corrupt RBPF members, and frequently transporting large sums of illicit drug proceeds via flights to and from Bahamian territory.
The primary cocaine importation conspiracy charge Steele-Pomare faces carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, with a maximum possible penalty of life imprisonment. Roker, the first cooperating defendant, was able to avoid the strict mandatory minimum sentence by pleading guilty to a reduced, lesser charge, his legal team confirmed during his sentencing.
The remaining 11 defendants named in the 2024 indictment include Elvis Nathaniel Curtis, the former Chief Superintendent of the RBPF, ex-RBPF Sergeant Prince Albert Symonette, Bahamian national William Simeon, and Jonathan “Player” Gardiner, a previously convicted drug smuggler. Court filings allege Curtis, who once led the RBPF’s Airport Division, and Symonette each accepted a $10,000 down payment in October 2023 in exchange for facilitating the passage of a 600-kilogram cocaine shipment through Lynden Pindling International Airport. The two men are also accused of offering armed security and access to law enforcement-issued firearms to protect other drug shipments transiting Bahamian territory, with additional claims that Curtis stated a high-ranking Bahamian politician would help smooth the movement of narcotics in exchange for a $2 million bribe.
An affidavit submitted by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents notes that undercover operatives posing as members of a major international drug trafficking syndicate held multiple recorded meetings with the defendants to build evidence for the case. Gardiner, who was first apprehended after surviving a plane crash that occurred on a Bahamian Election Day, is charged with participating in the criminal conspiracy between May 2021 and May 2026. He has entered a not-guilty plea to both cocaine conspiracy and firearms charges filed in New York, and faces parallel related charges in a separate federal prosecution in the state of Georgia.
Additional unsealed U.S. court documents allege that an as-yet-unidentified senior Bahamian politician met with an undercover DEA source inside the Bahamian Parliament building in October 2024 to discuss logistics for a proposed $30 million cocaine shipment. U.S. law enforcement officials have confirmed the public figure referenced is the same politician whose handwritten name appeared on a cash-stuffed envelope found in Gardiner’s possession at the time of his 2023 plane crash arrest.
Gardiner has since filed two formal motions in court: one requesting the full dismissal of all charges against him, arguing that extended pre-trial delays have undermined his ability to mount a fair defense, and a second motion seeking the return of $30,000 in cash that federal law enforcement agents seized at the time of his arrest. All remaining defendants who have not entered guilty pleas are scheduled to begin their joint public trial on March 1, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman, who was recently assigned to oversee the high-profile transnational narcotics case.
Colombian drug accused set to change his plea
