Lance Small fights another battle

WANTED fugitive Lance Small is heading to the constitutional court on June 21 seeking to block his extradition to the United States to face gun-related charges. The motion will be heard before Madame Justice Mira Dean-Armorer in the San Fernando High Court. Small, also known as Olive Enyahooma-El and “Fires,” is contending that his constitutional rights were breached in that the offences for which he was charged, were not covered by the Extradition (Common-wealth and Foreign Territories) Act. Small, 69, of Vincent Brown Street, Gonzales, was contesting his extradition to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before Magistrate Joanne Connor in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Magistrates’ Court when his attorney Pamela Elder SC raised a constitutional point which the magistrate ruled was a matter to be determined in the High Court.

Since then, Small’s attorneys filed the constitutional motion in the High Court. Last week, there was a pre-trial hearing in which the date was fixed for the hearing of the motion. Small remains in custody after several unsuccessful attempts to secure bail. Small was indicted by the United States Grand Jury on May 23, 2002, on charges of conspiracy to possess firearms contrary to the laws of the United States. The charges relate to an alleged attempt in May 2001 to import 60 AK-47 rifles and ten Mac-10 machine guns with silencers into Trinidad. Small was arrested on March 6 at the corner of Picadilly and Duke Streets, Port-of-Spain, and taken to the Port-of-Spain CID where he was informed that he was wanted in Florida, USA for firearm related offences.

Small was taken before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls two days later. Elder made several applications in the High Court and Magistrates’ Court for bail but these were denied. Some time later, Small was served with documents. Elder filed an application for judicial review contending that the offences for which her client was charged, were not covered by the Extradition Act. Justice Sebastien Ventour agreed and ordered that Small be freed from prison and that he be paid damages. Attorney General John Jeremie went to Parliament and got approval for an amendment to the Extradition Act making firearms offences extraditable. He also got Parliamentary approval for the amendment to be retroactive. As soon as Small was released from prison, police re-arrested him with new documents sent from the United States. Elder challenged this in the High Court with an application for a writ of habeas corpus, but this was turned down by Justice Prakash Moosai.

The extradition hearing resumed before the magistrate, but came to an abrupt end when Connor ruled that the constitutional point should be determined by the High Court. Small, a member of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, is charged with conspiring with others to possess machine guns during the period April 17, 2000 and May 30, 2001. Trinidadian Keith Andre Glaude was arrested on May 30, 2001 when he went to collect the guns to ship to Trinidad. But he did not know that he was getting the guns from an undercover ATF agent who promptly arrested him. In a plea bargain deal, Glaude served only two years in prison and is now a witness for the prosecution against Small.