By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has called the recent deaths of three Bahamian men in Haiti “unfortunate”, warning against involvement in dangerous, illegal activities as investigations continue into a suspected drug operation gone wrong.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mr Davis said his administration is still awaiting full details about the incident, but extended condolences to the affected families.

The Prime Minister’s remarks come amid mounting frustration among relatives trying to retrieve the bodies from Haiti.

“They asking for money for everything,” said Lloyann Stuart, the widow of Shadrack Stuart, one of the victims. “We had to pay ourselves to some Haitian people just for them to get my husband body out of the sea and treat his body.”

The Stuart family says the total cost to retrieve his body exceeds $17,000 — including airfare, documentation, and transportation to Port-au-Prince for embalming.

Stuart and two other Bahamian men died off the coast of Haiti earlier this month in what Haitian and Bahamian officials suspect was a maritime drug operation. Another man, 43-year-old Joey Russell of Sandy Point, Abaco, reportedly survived the initial encounter but died later in hospital under suspicious circumstances. Footage circulating online showed injured men and bodies adrift in open water. Relatives identified Stuart through the videos.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged challenges in securing information from Haitian authorities, and the circumstances surrounding the deaths remain under investigation.