Elias Cobos-Munoz, the Colombian who US law enforcement authorities say headed one of the largest drug-trafficking and drug-transportation organisations based in Colombia and Jamaica, lived in Kingston for more than two years, local narcotics police chief Carl Williams told the Sunday Observer on Friday.

“He lived here for a while and was here up to two months ago,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Williams said of Cobos-Munoz who was arrested last week.

Last Wednesday, the United States Justice Department reported that US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, assisted by their foreign law enforcement counterparts had, “over the past several days”, executed arrest warrants for the members of the Cobos organisation in Colombia, Panama, Jamaica, the Bahamas, the United States and Canada.

“This series of indictments and related arrests represents the successful culmination of the DEA’s ‘Caribbean Initiative’, a multi-faceted attack on all levels of certain major trafficking organisations operating in the Caribbean corridor,” the Justice Department said.

Since March this year, local narcotics agents have arrested at least 10 men, mostly from Montego Bay, for alleged drug trafficking.

Two of the suspects – Leebert Ramcharan and Donovan Williams – were on June 7 ordered extradited to the US to face charges.

However, defence lawyers for both men say they will appeal for a judicial review of the ruling handed down by Senior Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle. Both have been ordered remanded in custody pending the appeal.

On June 1, US president George W Bush named Ramcharan among 10 persons from Mexico, Jamaica, Peru, India and Afghanistan whom the US has designated international drug kingpins.

The designation bars these persons, their businesses and associates from the US economy.

Ramcharan’s lead lawyer, Lord Anthony Gifford, has argued that the drug kingpin designation will not ensure his client a fair trial in the United States, and it was on that basis that he was fighting the extradition order.

In the meantime, the other eight accused men:

. Herbert “Scarry” Henry, a police corporal;

. Norris “Dedo” Nembhard;

. Vivian Dalley;

. Robroy “Spy” Williams;

. Glenford Williams;

. Dennis Petagay;

. Miguel Arias, a Colombian; and

. Adrian Armstrong, who has been charged only with money laundering, are to return to the Half-way-Tree Criminal Court on July 19 where extradition hearings against them will continue.

On Friday, Assistant Commissioner Williams declined to name the suspects arrested in Jamaica as part of the Cobos-Munoz organisation, saying that he did not want to prejudice the remaining investigations.

However, he said that Cobos-Munoz, whom he described as “a significant drug trafficker”, had been under surveillance by local narcotics police for the two years he lived here.

According to the Justice Department, Cobos-Munoz’s arrest and indictment resulted from a 29-month-long international Organised Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation into cocaine and marijuana trafficking.

The investigation was conducted under two arms – operations ‘Busted Manatee’ and ‘Double Talk’.

The Justice Department said that Cobos-Munoz’s organisation, which was the focus of operation Busted Manatee, “allegedly imported large shipments of cocaine through transshipment points in the Caribbean and distributed that cocaine in the Miami area and elsewhere”.

Added the Justice Department: “The Cobos organisation allegedly affiliated itself with an organisation headed by Melvin Maycock and Pedro Smith. Maycock, Smith and 19 associates were targeted as part of Operation ‘Double Talk’.”

On Friday, the Associated Press reported that Bahamian and US officers arrested Smith as he attempted to leave the Bahamas on a private plane Thursday afternoon.

Smith, who is said to be a Jamaican, was caught after US federal agents connected flight plans and news reports that a plane linked to him had left Jamaica headed for the Bahamas, AP reported.

According to an indictment unsealed last Wednesday in the US, the Maycock/Smith organisation allegedly transported cocaine and marijuana via aircraft and boat into the United States. The indictment also said that both organisations shipped multi-ton quantities of illegal drugs into the United States.

“The aggregate gross proceeds generated from the cocaine and marijuana imported and distributed in the United States by these organisations allegedly exceeds $275 million,” the Justice Department said.

According to a separate indictment against Cobos-Munoz, which was also unsealed last Wednesday, proceeds of cocaine sales from his organisation were laundered through financial institutions in New York and elsewhere. “The money-laundering activities allegedly served to promote and facilitate the illegal drug-trafficking activities of the organisation,” the indictment added.

The defendants face a maximum of life imprisonment and a maximum fine of $4 million if convicted on the drug conspiracy charges. Each faces a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment if convicted on the money-laundering offences. The money-laundering charges also carry a maximum fine of $5,500.000 or twice the value of the property involved in the offences, whichever is greater.

On Wednesday, DEA Administrator Karen Tandy described the arrested men as “modern-day pirates of the Caribbean who prey on the vulnerable, plunder for profit, and intimidate through violence”.

“The trafficking organisations we have dismantled were responsible for distributing three metric tons of cocaine in this country every month, amounting to at least 10 to 12 per cent of the US cocaine supply,” Tandy said. “We are seeking extradition of these alleged criminals to the United States so that they will answer to the courts in the same land where they profited from poisoning America’s children.”