• Extradition requests to increase
Some high-ranking Jamaicans are said to be among a list of narco dealers for whose extradition the US authorities are expected to make requests to the Government of Jamaica in coming months.
Based on reports from the United States Department of Justice Office of International Affairs, the number of extradition requests for Jamaicans wanted for drug and gunrunning charges, is expected to increase dramatically by yearend.
Highly placed sources told the Sunday Herald that as many as 24 sealed indictments are in the possession of US authorities following Grand Jury hearings into alleged drug and gunrunning charges against Jamaicans including several high ranking businessmen and leading members of the local drug cartel, some of whom are said to be major financiers of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party and the Opposition People’s National Party.
Some of those involved operate between St. Ann and St James. Investigators told the Sunday Herald that evidence gathered suggests that the players have been smuggling drugs into the US for the past five years. It is believed that information provided by two leading smugglers, who cut plea bargaining deals with US authorities after they were extradited to the US, might have formed the basis for the latest charges.
Sources in diplomatic circles said the visit of Arturo Valenzuela, assistant secretary of state, western hemisphere affairs, to Jamaica this week would be used to discuss, among other things with Jamaican authorities, their obligations under the US/Jamaica extradition treaty and to clarify US Jamaican security goals at the diplomatic level.
The senior US envoy would start his three-nation trip Saturday in the Bahamas. He will also visit Trinidad & Tobago for talks with the newly elected Government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the State Department said.
Jamaica’s reliability as a credible partner in the fight against drugs was called into question during the prolonged extradition affair concerning alleged drug lord Christopher Coke, who was wanted in the United States. Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding in May ordered an assault on his west Kingston constituency in which 73 civilians were killed in the search for Coke.
Coke was caught a month later and flown to New York, where he faces life in prison if convicted on drug and gun-trafficking charges.
Are any “criminal affiliates” be involved?
There is no problem in seeing these indictments come to lite . However the question needs to be asked after these individuals are charged and convicted where will they be keep. Hopefully not deported back to jamaica. Or will they?
Bring it on, we need to rid the country of these scumbags.
Let them be the USA’s problem.
How will the next general elections be financed?
JA Cynic
Hope to see some of ‘Jamaica’s untouchables’ behind bars very soon.
Can we stop referring to alleged DRUG CRIMINALS as Drug Lords and Crime Bosses etc, thus endorsing them as though they were doing something legitimate?