Good Morning, Antigua and Barbuda. Good Morning, Sons and Daughters of Antigua and Barbuda around the world.

Last week, a record $25.7 Million shipload of narcotics was intercepted and seized in Antigua and Barbuda waters.

This historic drug bust, coming in just the tenth week of the first UPP administration, is a definitive demonstration that there now exists a new order in this country.

The view is being widely voiced that if the cartel that ruled up to March 23rd was still in power, that $24.7 Million drug shipment would have been delivered to its destination according to plan.

It had long been common knowledge that senior officials in the Bird government were significant players in the international syndicate of major drug cartels.

Eye-level accounts of drug transactions involving individuals in high public office have never been investigated, nor disproved.

The exception was when the son and brother of the country's first and second Prime Ministers, was caught red-handed and convicted for smuggling a hefty bundle of cocaine.

Consistent with the way things were ordered prior to Judgment Day, last March 23rd, the Prime Ministers' brother and son was not sent to jail.

He was rapped lightly over the knuckles and let off with only a fine.

None of this is lost on the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

That, in the public wisdom, is the way it was under the old order.

It is not surprising that a large section of the society now holds the view that the need to uncover and deal with what went down in the past is as pressing as is the need to uncover and deal with what is going down now.

The United Progressive Party government shares this view.

Endemic corruption, extortion and theft were the order of the day under the defeated and disgraced cartel that ruled Antigua and Barbuda up to ten weeks ago.

To ignore this, now, would be a monstrous betrayal of the people's trust.

Endemic corruption, extortion and theft contaminated every area, every level of government up to Judgment Day.

To ignore this would be a monstrous betrayal of the Oaths of Office that I and every member of my Cabinet swore with one hand on the Holy Bible, and the other pointing heavenward.

To ignore the endemic corruption, extortion and theft that flourished up to the change of government, would be to condemn this nation to repeat its past mistakes.

The United Progressive Party campaigned on an anti-corruption platform.

This mandates that we deal seriously with those elected officials who calculatedly betrayed the people and consistently misbehaved in public office.

Greedy politicians and their accomplices in the ALP cartel diverted into their own pockets, money that should have gone to improving the lot of the average Antiguan and Barbudan.

Insiders in the ALP cartel routinely appropriated untold acres of Crown land in enriching themselves and their accomplices.

Had those insiders in the ALP cartel acquired those lands at reasonably concessionary rates, this country would not have been forced, over the decades, to endure what the former Prime Minister is now proclaiming is "A House of Horrors" at Holberton hospital.

The leadership of the ALP cartel virtually gave away thousands of acres of prime Crown land to unscrupulous speculators in numerous shady deals that are now coming to light.

Had those lands been transferred at fair market value, this country's security forces and protective services would not have had to suffer with substandard and non-existent equipment and facilities.

Without any equitable over-the-counter consideration going to the Treasury the ALP cartel gave away Billions of Dollars in waivers of taxes and duties to selected investors.

Sizable proceeds were going into the pockets of public officials as those taxes and duties were written off.

All of this is common knowledge.

The Sunshine Government continues to uncover evidence revealing the extent of the criminality of the deposed dynasty.

The investigation that ace forensic accountant Robert Lindquist is leading on behalf of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda has already begun hitting mother lodes of evidence of misbehaviour in public office involving elected ALP officials.

Abundant evidence of Common Law Crime involving former public officials is surfacing across wide areas of government.

More and more persons are coming forward with information that will be valuable in bringing to book, the political crooks who ruled this country for so long.

From all the readings, misbehavior in public office was the paramount code of a dynasty that unrelentingly, and unrepentantly, contaminated everything within its reach.

I am confident that the kingpins who committed crimes against the people of this country will do the time.

Within this framework, it is useful for the Antiguan and Barbudan people to monitor the dramatic roundup and prosecution of over a dozen allegedly corrupt public officials, in what is labeled "The Piarco Airport Scandal" in Trinidad.

Former government Ministers have been apprehended and charged in that matter.

Court orders have frozen the substantial and far-flung assets of a former Minister of Finance in the Trinidad and Tobago government in four different countries of the world.

Among those assets are two properties in Florida, each valued at close to a Million Dollars, which the Minister concerned had transferred to a relative for the consideration of $10 each.

Other assets traced to that former government Minister include property and cash in such countries as The Bahamas and Lichtenstein.

The man leading those investigations and preparing the corruption charges against those former members of government and their accomplices is none other than Robert Lindquist.

Mr. Lindquist was in Antigua last week.

He is making significant progress in his investigations.

With the investigations, and other measures, the government is doing what is necessary to eradicate the culture of corruption that was systematically nurtured by the ALP cartel over the years.

To this end, the Sunshine Government will direct meaningful resources to strengthening the capabilities of our security forces and our protective services

Much of the technological resources available to our law enforcement agencies is obsolete.

We will significantly upgrade administrative and technological support for our justice system.

The Cabinet recently approved a modernization plan for the fleets of vehicles assigned to the Police and to the Defence Force.

We will update existing statutes and we will give our laws more teeth, with more severe penalties.

Sons and Daughters and Friends of Antigua and Barbuda:

The arrest, without gunfire, of the seven-member crew aboard the vessel that was loaded with an estimated 18,000 lbs of compressed marijuana is to the great credit of the security forces that carried out this historic operation.

The members of the Coast Guard of the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force and the members of our Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy, who carried out the operation that seized the boatload of drugs, deserve public commendation.

They have made it clear to the drug syndicates that it is definitely not business as usual in Antigua and Barbuda.

I salute all the officers who were involved in the drug bust on their sterling performance.

In a variety of ways, the UPP Government is working to repair the tattered international image of Antigua and Barbuda.

With all the supposed wealth of which the former Prime Minister continuously bragged, he single-handedly made this country a pariah among the nations of the region and the world.

Under his direct oversight, Antigua and Barbuda was grossly delinquent in its financial obligations to just about every international organisation in which this country was a participant.

The list is endless.

• The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
• The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
• The University of the West Indies.
• The Caribbean Development Bank.
• CARICOM.
• The Organisation of American States.
• The United Nations.
• Various agencies of the United Nations.
• The European Union
• The World Trade Organisation; and, believe it or not, Scotland Yard.
• He was just as delinquent with the government's local creditors.

The previous Prime Minister was Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He was, as well, Minister of Finance.

Antigua and Barbuda's international image and standing sank to rock bottom under his watch.

The national debt, at close to $4Billion, hit stratospheric dimensions under his watch.

Your government is working on repairing Antigua and Barbuda's standing in every forum in which we have been consigned to the position of outcast.

Faced with having to account for their misdeeds, the former Prime Minister and his accomplices have signaled a plan to incite street protests and civil disobedience.

This form of disruption has become the classic response of deposed leaders facing public probes and prosecution.

The obvious intention is to destroy public peace, create civil unrest and generally destabilise the society.

These tactics are meant to divert attention from what the ALP leaders see as impending investigations, prosecutions and trials.

Right-minded members of the national community will readily recognise a clear and present danger from panic stricken politicians who attach no value to any purpose other than avoiding justice.

That panic will intensify when the Attorney General tables Integrity and Anti-Corruption legislation in the House of Representatives this month.

Fellow Antiguans and Barbudans:

My good friends:

I am Baldwin Spencer.

I am the Political Leader of the United Progressive Party and Chief Servant of the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

Thank you for tuning in.

Thank you for staying tuned.

Please join me next Sunday, same time, same station.

Wherever, you are, may God richly bless you and your loved ones.

May God bless the Antigua and Barbuda that we all love.