Skip NavSon Of Vere Cornwal Bird
The Bird brothers had their share of drug-related scandals in Antigua. In 1990, Vere Bird allegedly helped ship 100 Uzi machine guns and 400 Galil automatic rifles through Antigua to the Medellin cocaine cartel in Colombia. After the scandal broke, it was said that drug trafficking and money laundering were keeping the tiny nation's economy running.
Ivor Grenville Theophilius Bird
On May 5, 1995, Ivor Bird the fourth son of VC Bird senior and brother of Lester and Vere Jr., was arrested at the VC Bird international airport with 12 kilos of cocaine as he attempted to board a flight. Instead of going to prison, he paid a $75,000 fine, as allowed under Antiguan law, and is now free.
Unlike his brothers vere and lester who became lawyers in Antigua, Ivor Bird dream was to bring a modern radio station to the island one day. With the help of his father, he acquired the money from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and fulfilled his dream. On the 30 th November 1970 ZDK came on the air broadcasting on the 1100 spot on the AM dial serving the Eastern Caribbean with 10,000 watts and the link between the studios in St. John's and the transmitter site was a FM transmitter with 10 watts on 99.0 FM.