Peter Morgan seized by US agents in T&T
-faces extradition over three drug indictments
Stabroek News
March 10, 2007
In a dramatic swoop, US drug agents working with Trinidad authorities yesterday afternoon seized Guyanese businessman Peter Morgan at Piarco International Airport, just days after an indictment was unsealed in a New York court charging him with three counts of drug conspiracy.
Morgan, an auto sales businessman and car racer, is to appear before a Trinidad Magistrate on Monday when a formal request by the US for his extradition to New York will be heard. Trinidad sources told Stabroek News yesterday that Morgan was able to avoid immediate extradition to the US after the intervention of a high-powered team of lawyers. Sources say Morgan had been under surveillance by US authorities for a number of years after several run-ins with law enforcement and his name had been on a list of Guyanese that the US is aiming to place before American courts on drug charges.
Morgan was indicted last November on three counts of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine in the US. The indictments were unsealed on Wednesday and an arrest warrant was issued the same day for the Guyanese. His capture in Port of Spain yesterday is reminiscent of that of businessman Roger Khan who is currently before a New York court on similar charges. Khan was also arrested in Trinidad after being deported from Suriname.
Speaking to Stabroek News from his Port of Spain office yesterday, Morgan's lawyer, US-trained Randy Depoo said that his client and other colleagues were returning to Guyana from Panama and were in-transit in Trinidad when two Trinidad police officers and two agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) arrested him. Depoo said that the arrest took place around 1 pm at the Piarco Airport. He told Stabroek News that Morgan was arrested on a provisional arrest warrant by the officials on an indictment of conspiracy to traffic cocaine into the US between 2001 and 2003. "So right now he is being held in T&T for extradition hearings, which will commence on Monday," the Guyana-born Depoo said. Asked how soon a decision could be expected in the extradition hearing, Depoo said that such a matter takes about one month in Port of Spain. Depoo, a former American diplomat, said that the US made a strategic move in the way they arrested Morgan, noting that the authorities could have done so in Guyana but waited until the auto dealer was in Trinidad and Tobago to make the arrest. He observed that recently Port of Spain and Washington signed a new extradition treaty which makes it easier for the two countries to extradite suspects.
"They could have arrested Morgan in Guyana, but the procedure for extradition there is not that easy so they made a strategic move in arresting him over here," the lawyer remarked. Morgan yesterday became the third Guyanese wanted by the US in recent times to be arrested in Port of Spain. His arrest follows that of basketball coach, Christopher Raffel Douglas and Khan. US authorities, sources say, have adopted this modus operandi as they believe Guyanese security forces are compromised and cannot be relied upon to execute arrest warrants. A previous attempt here several years ago for suspects, including Douglas, failed.
Asked how it was that Morgan was not flown to the US in the same manner as Khan last year, Depoo said that he had maintained that Khan was kidnapped and taken to the US. He said that the standard procedure for extradition is that the suspect must he taken before a local magistrate's court.
Khan who is currently before a US court charged with conspiracy to import cocaine into the US was arrested in Suriname last year June in a huge drug bust. The charges were later dropped and he was deported from Suriname to Guyana via Trinidad and Tobago. It was there that DEA officials seized him in a highly controversial and carefully orchestrated episode. "We have put them (the DEA and police) on notice that if Morgan is sent away to the US we shall take serious legal steps to have him brought back," Depoo warned.
Cash
He said so far the DEA officials have not given any indication that they would go that route with Morgan as with Khan. "I have spoken to my client and we will visit him day and night to ensure that he stays in Trinidad," Depoo declared.
He said Morgan has denied the allegations by the US and is maintaining his innocence. He said the Guyanese was in Panama with colleagues on business arrangements. Questioned as to what would have prompted the US indictment, Depoo said that the businessman told him that because he sold vehicles and gets paid in cash many persons think he is into illegal business. "But we will vigorously and aggressively fight the extradition in Trinidad because Morgan is not involved in any drug dealings," the lawyer declared. He said that he has been Morgan's lawyer for several years now representing him in both criminal and non-criminal matters.
According to the first count of the New York grand jury indictment which Stabroek News has seen, in or about and between 2001 and August 2003 both dates being approximate and inclusive, within the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, Morgan together with others did knowingly and intentionally conspire to import a controlled substance into the US from a place outside thereof, which offence involved five kilogrammes or more of a substance containing cocaine. In the second indictment, the US said that Morgan during the same dates together with others did knowingly and intentionally conspire to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine into the US. The third count alleged that the Guyanese together with others intentionally conspired to distribute cocaine intending and knowing that such substance would be imported into the USA. All three indictments are in violation of Title 21 United States Code Section 963 and 960.
Arms bust
Morgan was charged in December 1999 following an arms bust at the John Fernandes Wharf in Georgetown. Members of the Guyana Police Force and the Customs and Excise Department unearthed 14 guns including semi-automatic weapons, pump-action rifles and revolvers in a container consigned to the businessman. Also, ranks recovered over 3000 rounds of ammunition in the container, which had been shipped from Miami, Florida by Nankumar Budhan to Morgan. Local law enforcement agents had requested assistance from Interpol in relation with the investigation.
On December 21, Morgan and Budhan appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate's Court to answer charges in relation to the guns and ammunition find.
Morgan, a principal in Morgan's Auto Sales of 34 Oleander Gardens and Budhan called John Budhan a US-based Guyanese had both pleaded not guilty to two joint charges of attempting to import concealed goods and being knowingly concerned in the importation of restricted goods. Police had said that acting on information they searched a 20-foot container on the John Fernandes wharf. A thorough examination unearthed the guns and ammunition stashed in the body of a Toyota Tacoma pick-up and the container. On January 20, 2000 Budhan, who had shipped the container in which the guns and ammunition were found pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to one year in prison on all five of the charges. He however spent only one year since the sentences ran concurrently. The charges against Morgan were dropped on the advice of the DPP. It was revealed in court back then that the series of events that led to the arrest of Morgan and Budhan was triggered by a gun-related incident that Budhan was involved in a week before the discovery of the container at the wharf. In that incident, Budhan the court was told, pulled out a gun in a Middle Road La Penitence shop and discharged a round after a pool stick hit him.
The arrest of Morgan and Budhan had followed closely on the heels of two others. One week before the find, Morgan's brother, Terrence Morgan and two other relatives, Nevita Khan and Jaiprakash Shivdass were charged with unlawful possession of ammunition. They were allegedly caught with more than 13,000 rounds of various types of ammunition at a house in Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara.
Blocked
According to the Trinidad Express, an attempt was made yesterday to extradite Morgan immediately to the US but this was blocked by lawyers Depoo, Odai Ramischand and Jagdeo Singh who signalled their intention to challenge the extradition order.
According to the Trinidad Guardian, Ramischand told a Trinidad television station last night that the provisional warrant for Morgan's extradition had been issued last year after six of his associates were arrested and charged with drug trafficking. The provisional warrant mandates that Morgan must have a hearing before a magistrate in a court in the district where he was held to contest the extradition order. The Trinidad newspaper Newsday is reporting that Morgan was known to travel frequently to Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Margarita Island and had been under surveillance for sometime.
Morgan's case is said to be linked to the arrest in 2004 of Guyanese couple, Sabrina and Arnold Budhram and the smashing of a drug ring. They were said to have been part of a ring that smuggled a large amount of money from drug operations.
Morgan had been held in several other jurisdictions on various charges.