Fourth Trini to face US jury

Then on December 29, the US sent another warrant seeking Doon’s extradition to Fort Lauderdale to face charges of conspiracy to import and attempting to export cocaine into the United States.

Yesterday, Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court, acceded to the request of the United States and ordered that Doon be extradited to Florida to face the charges.

Mc Nicolls rejected the submissions of Doon’s attorney Rajiv Persad, saying that a prima facie case had been established.

Doon, 23, of Crosby Street, Aranjuez, San Juan, was remanded in custody to await his extradition. Doon has 15 days in which he could challenge Mc Nicolls’ ruling in the High Court by way of a writ of habeas corpus.

Failure to file any proceedings will result in two US Marshals coming to Trinidad to escort him to Florida. Doon is expected to be sent to Florida by the middle of February.

Minutes after the ruling, relatives of the wanted man broke down in tears outside the courtroom.

Doon is the fourth person to be sent to the US for these offences. Three others were sent to Florida in 2005, and have been sentenced to terms ranging from 70 months to 21 years in jail.

Ronald Rackal, 38, of Chenette Drive, El Socorro, who was considered the mastermind behind the hauling of $204 million in cocaine in Central Trinidad in 2001, was sentenced to 262 months by Judge James Cohn in the United States District Court in Fort Lauderdale.

Hafeez Mohammed, 29, of Globe Lane, San Juan, who was also charged, was sentenced to 135 months (11 years and three months) in jail after he pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking cocaine and conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. He is expected to be witness against Doon at his trial.

Housewife Indaryartee Dwarika, 45, of D’Abadie, was sentenced to 70 months in prison.

Mohammed, Rackal and Dwarika, were charged with conspiring to traffic cocaine, and the importing and exporting of cocaine between November 30, 2000, and January 22, 2001.

They were arrested and charged with Jitman Sookdeo, 36, Doon, and Andre Ravi Persad, after they were allegedly found by members of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit at a warehouse at Orange Field Road, Freeport, on January 22, 2001, with 542 kilos of cocaine stacked among cassava.

The day before they were due to go on trial at the Port-of-Spain High Court in November 2004, five of them (except Persad) were arrested on a provisional warrant for extradition to the US.

Sookdeo absconded while on bail for the extradition hearing and has not been heard of since. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Douglas Mendes SC and David West represented the US government.