DAVE Antonio Grant yesterday lost his almost two-year fight against his extradition to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

Grant, 36, of Yallahs in St Thomas, lost the case when he appeared before Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe in chambers at the Supreme Court.

He was immediately taken to the Norman Manley International Airport and handed over to US Marshals and later taken on a flight, en route to Texas in the United States.

Grant, who is facing charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana on an indictment filed in the Southern District Court of Texas, was arrested on a provisional warrant at his St Thomas home in August 2002 by local police. He was taken to the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court and in November 2002 Resident Magistrate Ralston Williams committed him to be extradited to Texas for trial.

However, he appealed and had been remanded in custody until his extradition yesterday.

According to documents filed in the court by US law enforcement officers, Grant was arrested in Houston Texas in January 1998 on charges of possession with intent to distribute ganja.

According to the court documents, Grant pleaded guilty in court and was released on bail to return to court for sentence in July 1998. But in April the following year, Grant escaped to Jamaica.

The local police who were contacted by their counterparts in Texas held the alleged fugitive in August 2000.

Grant’s attorney, Jacqueline Samuels -Brown, however, filed a writ seeking a reversal of the judgment after her client was ordered extradited.

Complaining that the court erred, Samuels -Brown submitted that the court treated the appellant as an accused person for the purpose of the extradition request, arguing that the offence for which the extradition was requested was an offence under Jamaican law, and the substance in relation to which his extradition was sought is prohibited under Jamaican law.