Woman to be extradited on drug charges

Pickersgill

Lloyd Williams, Senior Associate Editor

PAULINE Pickersgill, 30, whom the United States Drug Enforcement Administration claims was in charge of money-laundering for Dwight Mark Anthony Morant, a Jamaican who is facing major drug charges in California, was on Thursday ordered extradited to the U.S.

Pickersgill, who the DEA says is Morant's girlfriend, has been in custody for more than a year having been picked up by the police here at the request of the U.S. Government which filed extradition proceedings against her.

She has been indicted in the Central District of California on charges of operating a continuing criminal enterprise; conspiracy to distribute marijuana; money-laundering, and criminal forfeiture. The charges involve 100 tons of ganja with a street value of US$140 million.

Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle ordered her extradition in the Corporate Area Criminal Court, Half-Way Tree, after her attorney George Soutar, failed to persuade him in written submissions, to throw out the extradition request.

The Magistrate advised Miss Pickersgill that she had 14 days in which she could file a writ of habeas corpus in a bid to secure her freedom and assured her that she could not be extradited during that period.

From what could be gleaned from the questions Mr. Gayle asked, and the answers given by Mr. Soutar and Georgianna Fraser, acting Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, who represented the U.S. Govern-ment, Mr. Soutar argued that there was no proof that what was called "marijuana" in the U.S. was the same as "ganja" under Jamaican law. For example, he argued that under Jamaican law, resin must be in the cannabis plant for it to be accepted as ganja, whereas in the U.S. if the resin was extracted the plant would still be regarded as ganja.

Also, Mr. Soutar sought to have the extradition application rejected on the ground that the charge of " continuous criminal enterprise" was too "amorphous ... and catch all".

But the Magistrate ordered her extradition based on what he said was the evidence provided in the affidavits to the court by the requesting states.

The extradition hearing began on April 19 but the unexplained absence of a police witness who had actually been in court at the start of the hearing, led to it being adjourned prematurely, and thereafter there were several adjournments for one reason or another.

Morant, 34, had been sought here by the Fugitive Apprehension Team but he was arrested in Brooklyn, New York on April 12, having been freed by his cronies who, on October 2, shot and wounded his military guard at the Kingston Public Hospital where he had been taken for treatment of an alleged eye injury.

Morant, also known as Mark Demus and Anthony Rennick Black, is to face trial soon in the Central District of California for allegedly masterminding a ring that used corrupt Federal Express employees to distribute throughout the United States 100 tons of marijuana (ganja) valued at more than US$140 million.

He and Pickersgill had been in custody here since July 21, 2000 when they were arrested in a raid on a house at Bridgemount Park Avenue, Constant Spring, St. Andrew. Both were awaiting extradition hearing when Morant escaped.

The tall, slim Miss Pickersgill, also known as Lisa Stephens and Arlene Pasley, wearing a well-cut brown suit and high heels, did not change her serious countenance when the Magistrate told her he was ordering her extradition to the U.S. for her trial there.

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