US residents face extradition for heroin trafficking

Three US residents charged with attempting to import over $5 million worth of heroin were yesterday committed by Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls to be taken back to their homeland by US police officials. Erving Torres and Carol Ruiz, of Brooklyn, New York; Mario Gueteirez Morales, a Columbian national residing in California, USA, and Michael Jacques, originally of Luis Street, Woodbrook, presently residing in New York, were arrested in December 2002 by officers of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit. They were allegedly attempting to board BWIA flights destined for the US with the narcotic. The charge was laid indictably by Sgt Mc Carthy. All but Torres consented to the extradition. Mc Nicolls informed Ruiz, Morales and Jacques that they would be kept in custody until they are delivered to US authorities.

Morales, through interpreter Murchison Elie, asked the magistrate how long it would be before extradition. Prosecutor David West of the office of the Attorney General indicated to the court that they could be lawfully held in Trinidad for no longer than two months from the committal but the prosecution would be waiting for the submission of Torres before the three would be delivered. Torres is to re-appear on August 4 to either consent to or deny the extradition. Mc Nicolls stated, “That could be unfair. What if in August this chap decides to contest the extradition?” West then agreed to have Torres’s matter dealt with separately. The magistrate then informed the trio that they would be delivered, “most likely sometime next month.”