Guyanese suspect nabbed in Trinidad

Raphael Christopher Douglas appeared before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court hours after he was arrested in Trinidad.

Attorneys David West and Sunita Harrikissoon appeared on behalf of the United States government, while Douglas was unrepresented.

The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago has until September 14 to grant his authority for the extradition proceedings to begin. Meanwhile, Mc Nicolls refused bail to Douglas, but advised him of his right to apply to a judge in Chambers.

Hearing was then adjourned to July 27.

Douglas is one of five persons wanted by the US government for alleged cocaine trafficking between Guyana, Barbados, St Lucia, and the United States. The others named on the indictment were Frederick Hawkesworth, John Wayne Scantlebury, Sean Gaskin, and Terrence Sugrim.

Douglas and the others were indicted on two counts in the US District Court (District of Columbia) on March 3, 2003.

It is alleged that between January 1999 and March 27, 2004, in Barbados, Guyana, St Lucia, New York and elsewhere, Douglas and the others did knowingly and intentionally combine, conspire, confederate and agree with each other and with others unknown to the grand jury to manufacture and distribute more than five kilos of cocaine in the United States. According to details of the grand jury indictment, Hawkesworth was the leader of a drug trafficking organisation in Barbados which distributed cocaine and transported cocaine from Barbados, Guyana and elsewhere to the United States.

It is alleged that Douglas assisted Hawkesworth, by supplying cocaine to the organisation, by distributing cocaine in Barbados and elsewhere and by shipping cocaine directly from Guyana to the United States. It is also alleged that Sugrim assisted Douglas and Hawkesworth by coordinating the distribution of cocaine supplied by Douglas in Barbados and assisting with the distribution of cocaine directly from Guyana to the United States.

The US also alleged that on September 20, 2003, Douglas and three of his co-accused shipped 184 kilos of cocaine from Guyana to JFK International Airport in New York. According to court documents, Hawkesworth and Douglas attempted to send a test load of cocaine packed in a black nylon draw string bag from Guyana through JFK Airport on December 12, 2003.