Four US Marshals here for Lance Small

FOUR United States Marshals are in Trinidad to take wanted fugitive Lance Small to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to face firearm related charges. The US Marshals were planning to whisk Small away shortly after midnight last night, although the Jamaat-Al-Muslimeen member has a habeas corpus application in the Port-of-Spain High Court this morning. The Marshals arrived in Trinidad in their private jet after Attorney General John Jeremie signed the order for Small’s extradition to Florida to face charges relating to conspiracy to possess 60 AK-47 rifles, ten MAC-10 weapons and ten silencers.

On September 21, Senior Magistrate Joanne Connor ordered that Small be extradited to the United States to face the grand jury charges. But under the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act, the magistrate gave Small 15 days in which to apply for a writ of habeas corpus. That 15-day period ended at midnight last night. With time running out and with the order for the extradition signed by the Attorney General, the US Marshals flew into Trinidad to take Small back at 12.02 this morning. Small, 69, also called Olive Enyahooma-El and “Fires,” is being detained at the Maximum Security Prison at Golden Grove, which is just two miles away from Piarco Airport.

Attorneys representing Small filed the application for a writ of habeas corpus in the Port-of-Spain High Court Registry late on Monday afternoon. The ex-parte application was listed for hearing yesterday, but was put to be heard this morning. Small is not expected to be brought to court this morning. National security and judicial sources told Newsday that although the application for the writ of habeas corpus has not yet been heard in the High Court, the mere filing of the document stops the local authorities from handing over Small to the US Marshals. Recognising that the United States want Small “badly,” the judicial source advised that the local authorities hold their hands on sending the wanted fugitive to Fort Lauderdale before his case is properly and fully ventilated in the local courts. “We do not want a repeat of the Glenn Ashby fiasco,” the judicial source added.

Ashby was executed at the Port-of-Spain State Prison in July 1994 although he had a petition pending before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The death warrant was read to Ashby, who immediately filed a constitutional motion to stop the hanging. Although he lost in the local courts, the condemned man sought the intervention of the Law Lords, but he was hanged while the petition was heading to London. If they were not successful in taking Small earlier this morning, the US Marshals plan to remain in Trinidad until the habeas corpus case is completed. This is Small’s final battle to avoid extradition to the United States.