Miami - (dpa/tca) - US federal agents arrested the British Virgin Islands prime minister and port manager for the Caribbean islands Thursday at Miami airport on charges of planning to smuggle cocaine into the United States and money laundering, according to US authorities.

The American newspaper "Miami Herald" reported that agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration at Miami-Opa Locka airport arrested Andrew Altoro Fahey, Prime Minister of the British Virgin Islands, and Olianvin Maynard, director of the Department of the Port Authority in the islands.

Authorities told the newspaper that the foreign officials were arrested after they met undercover DEA agents posing as cocaine smugglers to examine a $700,000 shipment on a plane they believed was bound for the British Virgin Islands.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration agents pretended to be members of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel.

Authorities said a third suspect, Kadeem Maynard, son of a British Virgin Islands port manager, was also arrested Thursday in connection with the drug case, though not in Miami.

The three defendants were charged with conspiracy to bring more than 5 kilograms of cocaine into the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering.