Montego Bay businessmen Leebert Ramcharan and Donovan ?Plucky? Williams were yesterday extradited to the United States to face drug-related charges.

On Friday, Ramcharan lost an appeal to block his extradition to the United States on drug-trafficking charges. Ramcharan?s lawyers had argued that he would not be given a fair trial because he was among six persons designated drug kingpins by U.S. President George W. Bush.

But the Court of Appeal threw out their claims. Deputy Solicitor General Patrick Foster had said there was no merit in the lawyers? arguments.

Yesterday, Gilbert Scott, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, told The Gleaner that both men were extradited early yesterday morning.

In June 2004, the two men were ordered extradited to the U.S.A., following a hearing in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate?s Court, to face conspiracy charges. It is being alleged that they were involved in the trafficking of cocaine from Jamaica to the United States.

Frank Phipps, Q.C., and attorney-at-law Wentworth Charles who represented Williams had argued that the indictment, which charged conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine, were not offences under Jamaican law and therefore Williams should not be extradited.

The Court of Appeal disagreed saying that ?conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute,? though worded differently from the approach in Jamaica, are recited offences which are recognisable in Jamaican law.?

The men had appealed against a Supreme Court ruling in September last year which turned down their application to have the extradition orders set aside.