PHILIPSBURG — Did the Italian mafia gain a foothold in St. Maarten? For the answer to that question, we have to go back more than fifty years and to a study performed by Toine Spapens, a professor of criminology at Tilburg university. Writing about mafia infiltration in the (former) Netherlands Antilles and especially in Sint Maarten, Papens concluded: “it started in the early seventies when the Sicilian businessman Rosario Spadaro bought a hotel and developed it into a casino.” The study states that there was a link between Spadaro and the Italian-American Cellini family. The Cellinis took part in the…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – In a significant boost for regional air travel, Z Air’s inaugural Embraer 140 jet flight from Curaçao touched down at St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) on Monday morning, July 14, 2025, greeted by a celebratory water cannon salute. The arriving aircraft marked the start of the airline’s new thrice-weekly service connecting St. Maarten and Curaçao every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – a route now served by jet aircraft promising faster journey times and enhanced connectivity between the two islands. Festive Welcome at Princess Juliana Airport The Embraer 140 jet landed around 11:00 a.m. and…
Philipsburg – The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has embarked on a groundbreaking partnership with St. Maarten-based firm Phoenix Capital B.V. to leverage advanced technologies – including drones, blockchain, and tokenization – for sustainable natural resource management. Under the banner of the AXIS National Program, this collaboration aims to promote ethical mining, innovative finance, and community-driven carbon credit systems in the DRC, with a ripple of enthusiasm reaching St. Maarten’s shores. Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Development in the DRC At the heart of the DRC’s strategy is the AXIS National Program, a nationwide plan to tokenize strategic natural resources at…
PHILIPSBURG — The Social Fund of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FSRDC) and Phoenix Capital B.V., a company based in Sint Maarten, are pleased to announce the official establishment of a strategic collaboration. This announcement follows the recent working visit to Sint Maarten by Mr. Philippe Ngwala Malemba, National Coordinator of the FSRDC, appointed by Presidential Order. During his stay, Mr. Ngwala Malemba held a series of high-level meetings with Mr. Alain Lemieux, President of Phoenix Capital B.V., which ultimately led to the finalization and signing of a partnership agreement. The Social Fund of the Democratic Republic of Congo is a…
Philipsburg — To meet the requirements of sustainable development, the Democratic Republic of Congo has decided to use the most advanced technologies to serve the environment and local communities : – Creation of a gold-backed sovereign digital monetary instrument recognized as a tangible asset with legal tender – Tokenization of natural resources from grassroots communities to ensure transparency, traceability, and ethics of transactions for the equitable creation and sharing of wealth. The traceability of gold resources will be ensured not only by the security of transactions via blockchain but also by an innovative drone transport system. Placed under the high patronage…
PHILIPSBURG -– Around forty years ago, on November 9, 1983, the Netherlands was shocked when five criminals from Amsterdam kidnapped brewery magnate Freddy Heineken and his driver Ab Doderer. Against the advice from the police, the family paid a ransom of 35 million guilders (almost $16 million). Police managed to free the victims on November 30, 1983. The masterminds of the kidnapping, gangsters Willem Holleeder and Cor van Hout fled to Paris where they spent three years, first in a hotel and later in the Santé prison, at the time labeled as the most notorious prison in France. The gangsters…
~ Below is an article on the political importance of the food supply. It’s not Taiwan or tariffs that worry Beijing…it’s food. ~ By Tom Clifford in Beijing It’s not Taiwan or the economy that keeps Chinese leaders questioning and re-questioning their mandarins. It’s a four-letter word that begins with f: food. Or more precisely, ensuring 1.4 billion people have enough to eat. Many of today’s Chinese leaders know firsthand that food shortages are not some hypothetical scenario. They have experienced what happens when that commodity is scarce. The country’s last food crisis was the Great Famine in 1959–1961, the largest…
PHILIPSBURG — Financial supervisor Cft remains highly critical of St. Maarten’s financial management. This appears from the Cft’s reaction to execution report for the first quarter of 2025. While the 2025 budget shows a preliminary surplus of 38 million guilders ($21.2 million), the Cft notes that it is unable to establish whether the budget is in line with the standards set in the kingdom law financial supervision. The Cft states that the parliament has approved the 2025 budget but that it has not yet been signed by the Governor. The supervisor furthermore says that the execution report lacks qualitative information.…
By StMaartenNews.com Editorial Team It is not a new observation and we certainly did not come up with it. But it is still useful to think about: countries are not ruled by their government, but by their civil service. Reason enough for the Dutch publication Binnenlands Bestuur to commission Ipsos I&O to conduct a survey among civil servants in the Netherlands to find out what these gatekeepers of democracy really think. The results are not exactly comforting. Only 30 percent of respondents said they are prepared to serve any government, regardless of political color. That’s down from 36 percent last…
A renewed review of the article “THE economy opportunity of the moment” by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert on StMaartenNews.com was inspired by an article published today in The Peoples’ Tribune about MP Wescot-Williams suggestion for a pilot program for urban innovation entitled “Can St. Maarten go Smart?” MP Wescot‑Williams’ tech-led “Smart City” pilot proposal for Cole Bay offers a compelling, forward-thinking complement to Cdr. Slabbaert’s proven economic roadmap—building from cottage industries to cooperatives to a focus on human capital. 1. 🏙️ Cole Bay as St. Maarten’s Pilot Smart City Scope: Turn Cole Bay into a Caribbean-first smart district using technology such as…
