THE government yesterday confirmed it has received a formal request from authorities in the United States for a number of Guyanese suspected to be involved in major drug trafficking and money laundering operations to be extradited and put before the courts in the U.S.
The confirmation was given by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon at his regular post-Cabinet media briefing at the Office of the President.
He said the government has responded to this request by the U.S. authorities in a “principled” manner and has given the assurance that it will support and even expedite such an extradition process once the necessary procedures are followed and the facts presented.
“The request of the American authorities and their justice system has been received by the Guyanese authorities,” Luncheon told reporters, adding that this is “not a novel intervention”.
“There is a legal procedure that needs to be followed and the government has clearly indicated its support to having those procedures given effect in implementing the wishes or requests of the American authorities to extradite these Guyanese,” he said.
“We haven’t the benefit of all of the information that would allow the process to be unveiled and to be put into effect, but one would have to believe that the American authorities have some awareness of the procedures and some recall of the procedures that were implemented in earlier extradition cases…that have not been changed and indeed, they would be pursuing the request in the most formal of ways,” Luncheon stated.
When asked, specifically, whether the U.S. made any ‘formal request’ for extradition to the Guyana Government, he replied: “This is the understanding…the American Government has submitted these sealed requests for extradition purposes and they would kindly invite the competent authority here to deal with same”.
Unconfirmed reports indicated that there were 14 sealed interventions by the U.S. authorities indicating the names of Guyanese suspects they want extradited.
Luncheon said although he is aware of these sealed interventions, he is not aware of the names of the people the U.S. want extradited.
Several Guyanese have been busted in the U.S. recently on drugs and money laundering offences and officials say they are closing in on rings that have established networks here and in the U.S.
A delegation comprising legal and security officials from the U.S. was in Guyana last week to conduct investigations and ascertain the extradition procedures for a number of Guyanese who are likely to be put before the courts in the U.S.
Asked about surveillance mechanisms, if any, that are in place to monitor or observe the ‘suspects’, Luncheon said he was not in a position to respond.
Asked whether these suspects can be arrested, he said they certainly can but that on the basis of information that has been provided so far, it is not enough to do so at this point in time.
“One would have to go and establish that unlawful and illegal activities within the jurisdiction of this state have taken place for us to move to the state of arrest on the basis of the requisition for extradition and establishing, again, those facts presented by the U.S. authorities,” Luncheon posited.
He said that the basis for the extradition request has “considerable legal antecedent in the requesting state”.
“I am saying that is the information that generally allows a receiving state to respond favourably (and) we surely would not be dealing with, especially with the experiences that the American justice system has, spurious requests not being substantiated by reliable, consistent and facts that for all intents and purposes are incontrovertible,” he said.