POLITICS-ST.KITTS/NEVIS: US Wins a Round in Extradition Fight

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Patrick Smikle

BASSETERRE, May 20 1998 (IPS) - As if to send a signal to the ‘Dons’ of regional drug trafficking, the United States, despite a major setback last year, is continuing its efforts to extradite three Kittitian businessmen to Florida to face drug trafficking charges.

And in the latest development, a ruling by a High Court Judge, has handed the Justice Department its first victory in this two- year battle.

Justice Neville Smith has ruled that Magistrate Haynes Blackman erred in October 1996 when he dismissed a US request for the extradition of Charles Miller, Noel Heath and Glenroy Matthew.

This ruling, explained St. Kitts and Nevis’ Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP) Francis Belle in an interview with IPS, means that Blackman must review his October decision.

The US charge is that between Jun. 23-26, 1992, Heath was involved in the shipment of cocaine from St. Kitts to the United States. Miller and Matthew are charged jointly with having undertaken a similar exercise between Aug. 22 and Oct. 22, 1994.

They were arrested in the early morning hours of May 29, 1996 and a hearing for their extradition to Florida took place between early July and mid-August of that year.

The case against the three men rested mainly on what appeared to be two damning pieces of evidence.

There was the testimony of two employees of the cargo airline AMERIJET, whose St. Kitts operations are run by Matthew, that they had helped Miller and Heath load cocaine on to the company’s aircraft in 1994.

And there were the tapes … recordings and transcripts of telephone conversations between the three accused and persons in the United States.

The prosecution argued that the cryptic, apparently coded conversations, were in fact drug deals being made. The defence said this was conjecture and in any event the recordings had been obtained illegally since it requires an order signed by the Governor General for a Kittitian citizen’s telephone to ‘be tapped’.

The prosecution countered that the recordings had actually been done at the New York end on the basis of a warrant from a US judge. They also noted that the persons at the US end of the telephone line, had been convicted of drug trafficking, based partially on those conversations.

Blackman appeared to base his decision mainly on the issue of the recordings. On the basis of St. Kitts law, he said, the recordings had been obtained illegally. But what was important was not how the evidence was acquired, but what weight to give to it.

He was limited in what weight he could give to the transcripts he said, because so much of it was unintelligible and so much of the remainder was coded.

He then ruled that he could not, on the basis of this evidence, commit the three businessmen for extradition, thus earning high praise from lead defence attorney Dr. Henry Browne. “It was a bold, sensible and right decision by an independent magistrate,” Browne told IPS.

Justice Neville Smith who conducted a ‘Judicial Review’ of the case based on an appeal from the US Justice Department, is unlikely to earn a similar commendation from Browne.

In a ruling which Director of Public Prosecutions Francis Belle admits he’s still studying “to determine all its ramifications”, Smith said in effect that the magistrate had gone beyond what he was supposed to do.

He was not supposed to “weigh the evidence” to determine issues like reasonable doubt. He was merely to determine whether a prima facie case had been made against the men.

“In weighing the evidence, he was more lenient with the respondents than he ought to be,” Smith said. It was not up to the Magistrate to evaluate the merits of one affidavit against the other. That was for a jury to decide.

He said Blackman erred in law by “taking into account matters he ought not to have considered and failing to take into account, matters he ought to have considered.”

On the issue of the transcripts, for example, he said that while some parts were incomplete and inadmissible, some sections were clear enough to indicate that Miller and Matthew were involved in discussions about transporting cocaine into Miami on AMERIJET flights.

Whatever Blackman’s decision in the new hearing, yet to be scheduled, the losing side is almost certain to appeal, all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England.

But Smith’s ruling was seen as a significant victory for law enforcement authorities in St. Kitts, who have lost several battles against these men.

Prior to Justice Smith sending the matter back to the Magistrate’s Court, then Commissioner of Police Brian Reynolds had told IPS that he did not think the October 1996 ruling was the end of the matter.

He said also that despite Blackman’s decision in the men’s favour, he took some comfort that the pressure being placed on the drug trade in St. Kitts, seemed to have persuaded the big South and Central American traffickers to look elsewhere for trans-shipment routes.

He noted that there had been a marked reduction of drug activity and speculated that “the South American drug lords, realising that their main players in St. Kitts are in trouble, have decided to bypass the island.” But he did not expect that happy state to continue.

And he was right. Earlier this year the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported an increase in the trans-shipment of South American narcotics through the Eastern Caribbean.

Without making direct reference to Miller, Heath and Matthew, Reynolds said he was concerned about those who had enriched themselves from the trade, escaped the law and were now investing those resources in legitimate business ventures.

“I know that a lot of the drug money that has come through this country has been invested in businesses that are for all intents and purposes legitimate. It’s an insidious crime,” Reynolds said.

He also said he was worried about the effect on young people. “Youngsters see people in the community making a lot of money from it (because) the people who do it demonstrate their wealth.”

Reynolds, now a security advisor to the St. Kitts and Nevis government, was in court for Smith’s ruling and openly expressed his delight at the outcome.

Despite repeated attempts by IPS, Browne was not available for comment.