Jamaica’s Supreme Court will begin a hearing this week on whether a Jamaican national declared a ‘drug kingpin’ by the American president can be assured of a fair trial if extradited to the United States to answer drug trafficking charges.

This critical point of law will be argued before the Full Court – comprising Justices Lensley Wolfe, Mahadev Dukharan and Lloyd Hibbert – on motions brought by Montego Bay businessmen Leebert Ramcharan and Donovan “Plucky” Williams, both of whom were ordered extradited more than a year ago by a Kingston magistrate, Martin Gayle. Both had asked for a judicial review of the June 2004 extradition order.

It is expected, too, that the hearing will skirt – if not fully delve into – the issue of the constitutionality of Jamaica’s extradition law itself – a question that has been raised by another drug accused, Adrian Armstrong, who has been fighting an attempt to extradite him to the US.

Essentially, Armstrong is arguing that a law like the Extradition Act needs to be passed by a special majority of Parliament and demands specific time periods between its tabling and debate.

But the fundamental issue before the Full Court is the impact to a legal proceeding abroad of being named a drug kingpin.

Just ahead of his extradition order, Ramcharan and another Montego Bay businessman, Norris “Dedo” Nembhard, had made US president George W Bush’s international “drug kingpin” list, a categorisation that not only marks individuals as significant drug traffickers, but triggers the freezing of their assets in the United States and prevents American firms from doing business with companies that they own.

The legal fairness of the “kingpin” mark has raised significant debate in Jamaica and elsewhere. Critics say that it prejudices the right of the accused to an impartial trial, a position with which Hugh Small, a Jamaican who sits on the Bahamian bench, agreed earlier this year in a case involving Samuel ‘Ninety’ Knowles.

Knowles, who had Jamaican connections, was held more than three years ago in an operation involving Jamaican, US, Bahamian and Dominican law enforcement agents.

He is now serving a jail sentence in the Bahamas, but the Americans also want to extradite him to face narcotics trafficking charges there. However, Small, a former Jamaican lawyer and politician, ruled that Knowles could not be assured a fair trial in the US, with President Bush having named him a “drug kingpin”. The Bahamian authorities are set to appeal the ruling.

Since 1999, the United States Government has been compiling annually, a list of groups and individuals it alleges are involved in the drug trade. Those on the list are barred from conducting business with the US Government, its citizens and US companies. In addition, designated individuals and immediate family members who have “knowingly benefited” from the designated individuals’ illicit activities are denied visas to the United States.

The Kingpin Act provides for criminal penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment for individuals and up to US$10 million in fines for entities, for violations.

On March 3, 2005, the US placed four of Ramcharan’s Montego Bay companies on its blacklist, freezing their assets and prohibiting US companies from doing business with them.

The companies – Caribbean Beach Park, Caribbean Showpiece Ltd, Ramcharan Brothers Ltd, and Ramcharan Ltd – have been added to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin sanctions list maintained by the US Department of the Treasury and other American government agencies.

Ramcharan and Williams were arrested by the Jamaica Fugitive Apprehension Team, supported by the Special Operations Division of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. They were picked up during “Operation Alcatraz”, a multinational, multi-jurisdictional wire-intercept operation targeting drug transportation organisations based on the North Coast of Colombia and in Jamaica. The local organisations were allegedly headed by Ramcharan and his British-based brother Norman Ramcharan. Norman Ramcharan was jailed in Britain last November for seven years, following his conviction for money laundering.

The DEA listed Ramcharan as a “Regional Priority Organisation Target (“RPOT”), and his brother, who was arrested in the UK, as a “National Priority Organisation Target (“NPOT”).

In the Jamaican phase of the operation, four other Jamaicans and five Colombians were arrested on extradition warrants.

Overall, Operation Alcatraz is reported by the DEA to have resulted in the arrest in the UK, Colombia, Jamaica and Panama of 59 suspects, the seizure of 10,710 kilos of cocaine and US$513,000, with an additional US$5 million in assets related to the suspects being targeted for forfeiture.