Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterMONTEGO BAY businessmen Leebert Ramcharan and Donovan 'Plucky' Williams, who were ordered extradited to face drug charges in the United States, have filed motions in the Supreme Court seeking their freedom because of alleged breaches of the Extradition Act and bias.
Senior Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle made the extradition order on June 7 despite strong opposition from defence lawyers who questioned the authenticity of documents submitted by the U.S. Government requesting the men's extradition and the validity of some of the charges on which the men are wanted.
RAMCHARAN WANTS FAIR TRIAL
Ramcharan is contending in the writ filed yesterday in the Supreme Court that his designation on June 1 this year as a 'Drug Kingpin' will deny him a fair trial in the requesting state. He is asking the Supreme Court to rule that the designation was not made in good faith in the interest of justice but in a manner calculated to deny him a fair trial.
On June 1, U.S. President George W. Bush designated Ramcharan and Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard, another Jamaican whose extradition is also being sought, as 'Drug Kingpins' under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The Jamaicans were among 10 persons and organisations identified by Bush as drug traffickers and against whom sanctions will be imposed according to the powers vested under the Act.
Williams and Ramcharan were arrested on the morning of March 3 this year in Montego Bay, St. James, during a raid conducted by local police, assisted by United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents, on provisional warrants seeking their extradition to the U.S. for drug-related activities reportedly carried out in that country.
AFFIDAVIT INADMISSIBLE
Both men are to face charges of conspiracy to import narcotics into the U.S. between 1998 and 2004, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and attempting to import drugs into the U.S.
The men contend in the claim forms which were filed yesterday that the Resident Magistrate erred in law in admitting into evidence an affidavit purporting to have been made by Alexander Young but bearing the signature Young Duffiz. The men are asking the court to find that the affidavit was inadmissible because it was not certified by any person to be the original document containing the testimony or a true copy of the original as is required by the Extradition Act.
They claim further that the RM erred in law in admitting into evidence a document purporting to be the affidavit of a person whose name and signature had been obliterated.
Man wanted in US nabbed
WESTERN BUREAU:
A MONTEGO Bay cambio operator was picked up on Saturday by detectives from the Police Narcotics Division at the request of the United States Government, on a provisional warrant of arrest.
He is Adrian 'Ruddy' Armstrong, of Grand Central Cambio and Cheque-Changer, whose extradition, police sources said, is being sought for his trial in the United States on money laundering charges.
A highly-placed police source told The Gleaner that United States authorities were seeking the 48-year-old Armstrong's extradition for his purported role "in facilitating the movement of billions of dollars from the U.S., Europe, Panama, Colombia and Jamaica for some of the big players in Western Jamaica."
Armstrong was picked up about 12.30 p.m. at a restaurant in the fishing community of Whitehouse, St. James. It is said that the cambios were searched as was his Bay Pointe Apartment in the Montego Bay Freeport area.
- Nagra Plunkett
