TT rugby player extradited to US

Mark Kurt Hamilton of Nadine Street in Gasparillo was escorted to Miami by two US Marshals aboard American Airlines flight 1818. Hamilton was removed from prison shortly before 7 am and hustled to Piarco International Airport where local drug enforcement officers handed him over to the Marshals.

The warrant for Hamilton’s arrest was signed on May 25 by Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls.

Hamilton is wanted in the US for conspiracy to traffick cocaine; conspiracy to possess cocaine; possession of cocaine and trafficking a dangerous drug, namely cocaine. The offences were alleged to have occurred in New York.

This is the second time Hamilton has had a brush with the law. At age 16, he committed robbery with other members of a gang and was sentenced to three years at the Youth Training Centre (YTC) in Arouca.

It was while at YTC that he met the Centre’s rugby coach Wayne Albert and was introduced to the sport. He then joined Northerns Rugby Club in the Trinidad and Tobago Rugby Football Union competition. At age 17, Hamilton was selected on the national team as a winger.