Morgan likely one of 14 on US list - AG
By Nigel Williams
Stabroek News
March 14, 2007
Attorney-General Doodnauth Singh says businessman Peter Morgan, who was arrested in Trinidad last Friday, would likely be one of the 14 Guyanese the US Govern-ment had indicated it wanted to extradite two years ago to face drug trafficking charges.
However, he said Guyana does not know the names of the other men and asserted that the administration would cooperate with the US authorities if any requests for extradition were made.
Speaking to reporters yesterday at the National Assembly, Singh said government did not have a list of names, but he said the fact that an indictment was unsealed for Morgan meant he was one of the 14 on the list.
Back in May of 2004, visiting US authorities had indicated to Singh that they had prepared indictments for 14 Guyanese, which had been sealed.
Singh had met US Attorneys from New York and US Drug Enforcement Admi-nistration agents. The AG had told reporters then that the US representatives had outlined their efforts to prosecute Guyanese, but did not name suspects.
Stabroek News was told that a number of businessmen are among the 14 Guyanese indicted.
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee said yesterday that under the Advanced Pro-tection Information System, which was agreed upon by member states of Caricom, the names of a number of wanted suspects are stored in a fusion centre in Barbados. Rohee said Morgan might have been on that list, but he could not say if any other Guyanese is on it.
Rohee told reporters that nobody knew the other names except the people in the fusion centre. Asked why Guyana did not take steps to arrest Morgan as was done in Trinidad, Rohee said not all the names were shared with each country.
Sources have said that Washington does not have confidence in the local law enforcement agencies handling extradition requests. Asked whether he believed Guyana was extradition-friendly, Rohee said the country has an extradition treaty with the US and he cannot remember any instance when Guyana did not cooperate with Washington on any matter.
Several years ago, the US had unsealed indictments against four Guyanese including Christopher Raffel Douglas. US authorities had then approached local authorities for assistance in apprehending the quartet, but it appears the four men got wind of the impending move and fled the jurisdiction. Douglas was subsequently apprehended in Trinidad and then extradited to the US. The others were never found and it appears that other indictments were not unsealed because the US was concerned that the persons might not be apprehended.
Well-placed sources had told Stabroek News that the indictments had been composed in various US courts for several Guyanese but remained sealed until such time as an arrest appeared possible. This was the same procedure used to target and capture drug-indicted businessman Roger Khan.
Morgan, facing three counts of conspiracy to traffic cocaine into the US, appeared in a Trinidad court on Monday and was refused bail. He will return to court next Monday. Trinidadian authorities told the court that he was also a primary supplier of cocaine to Trinidad, Bar-bados, St Maarten and Canada.
Head of the T&T Central Authority Unit (CAU) in the Ministry of the Attorney-General attorney David West told the court on Monday that Morgan was a primary cocaine supplier to Trinidad, Barbados, St Maarten and Canada and that between October 2001 and 2003 the Guyanese trafficked in between 15 kilos and 100 kilos of cocaine to these countries and the US.
The Oleander Gardens resident was arrested on a provisional arrest warrant by US drug agents working with Trinidad authorities on Friday afternoon at Piarco Inter-national Airport, just days after an indictment was unsealed in a New York court charging him with three counts of drug conspiracy. West told the court on Monday that the Trinidadian authorities are awaiting certain documentation from the US Government before the process of extraditing Morgan commences. According to the warrant, between October 1, 2001 and August 31, 2003, Morgan allegedly knowingly and intentionally conspired with David Narine, Susan Narine, Hung Fung Mar and persons unknown to import cocaine. During the same period, Morgan also allegedly imported cocaine into the US.