Bahamian Drug Kingpin, extradited by government - convicted

In the first instance, Samuel "Ninety" Knowles, the Bahamian head of a multinational drug organization, was found guilty of drug conspiracy charges. It was charged that the 48-year-old led a conspiracy to import several thousand kilos of cocaine into the United States on go-fast boats between 1995 and 1996. The jury also determined that US $13.9 million in his assets should be forfeited to the U.S. government. He now faces a possibility of  life in prison when he reappears in court for sentencing on May 28.

Knowles  was unilaterally extradited by the Bahamian Government on August 28, 2006, while he still had a pending appeal before the Supreme Court in that country fighting his extradition..

According to the Nassau Guardian, "The decision to turn him over to U.S. marshals while he still had a pending appeal before the Supreme Court has been condemned. The Court of Appeal recently found Knowles' extradition was illegal. The appellate tribunal criticized former foreign affairs minister Fred Mitchell's decision to sign a warrant of surrender for Knowles, although he was still fighting his extradition.

The Court of Appeal said, "We cannot leave this judgment without recording this court's serious concern about the manner and timing of the order for the removal of the appellant from The Bahamas. At the time, the executive well knew that Justice John Lyons had fixed a date a little over a month away to hear the appellant's application. In those circumstances, to have ordered the surrender of the appellant 10 days after the learned judge had fixed a date for hearing the application, is clearly an egregious breach of the statute and is without precedent in this country."

Jamaican Kingpins extradited by court  - convicted

In another unrelated instance according to a release at www.flsd.uscourts.gov, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, announced today (March 05) the convictions of defendants Leebert Ramcharan, a U.S. White House-designated Drug Kingpin, and Donovan Williams, another Jamaican national, after a seven-week jury trial before the Honorable Judge Patricia A. Seitz, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Both defendants were convicted of conspiracy to import and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five (5) kilograms or more of cocaine, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 963 and 846, respectively. They face a maximum statutory sentence of life imprisonment. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 23, 2008 at 8:30a.m.

Ramcharan and Williams were arrested in the Montego Bay area of Jamaica in 2004, and extradited from Jamaica to the United States in 2007, after their extradition was approved by the Jamaican Supreme Court. The trial against Ramcharan and Williams commenced January 15, 2008, and included testimony from more than fifteen (15) witnesses, including officers from the Jamaican Constabulary Force (JCF), the Royal Bahamian Police Force (RBPF), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and civilian witnesses from Colombia, the United States, and Jamaica. In addition, the government introduced more than one hundred items of evidence, including wiretaps on the telephones of the co-conspirators by the Colombian government, and the Bahamian government in 2002-2003.

According to the evidence presented at trial, defendant Ramcharan was the leader of a sophisticated operation in Jamaica. From 1998 through 2004, this cocaine smuggling organization received as much as fifteen (15) thousand kilograms of cocaine imported via go fast vessels from the Northern Coast of Colombia. The cocaine was then stored in Jamaica, and subsequently it was transported to the Bahamas on boats and airplanes. Ultimately, the cocaine was imported into the U.S. for distribution and sale in South Florida.

Mr. Acosta commended the extraordinary cooperation of the Colombian National Police, the Jamaican Constabulary Force, the Royal Bahamian Police Force, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, Miami Field Division, Jamaican Country Office, Bahamian Country Office and Bogota Country Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alicia Shick and Arthur Wyatt.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.