After hearing news that 41-year-old taxi driver Kenroy Hardie is wanted in the United States in connection with a 2002 murder, president of Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) Egeton Newman said on Thursday that it is time for Jamaica to weed out criminals from the public transport sector.

Hardie, an alleged former drug dealer, is wanted in the US for the murder of a rival drug dealer. He was arrested early Wednesday morning in Portsmouth, Portmore, St Catherine, by members of the St Catherine South Police Division as well as the Jamaican Fugitive Apprehension Team. He allegedly fled to Jamaica in 2006.

While investigating the matter, the New York Police Department said it found that Hardie was part of a drug crew that organised and was responsible for the shooting death of Altari Felton in New York on March 27, 2002.

The Jamaica Observer leant that an arrest warrant was issued for him in July 2022 by the US District Court of New York.

Hardie made his first appearance in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Thursday to answer to an extradition request.

Hardie was seen with a member of his legal team, attorney-at-law Chadwick Berry, engaged in a conversation before his case was called up. The lead attorney-at-law representing Hardie is Christopher Townsend. However, Townsend was absent from the extradition hearing on Thursday and Berry explained that he was holding for his senior.

Berry asked Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague if the hearing could be put off until next week. The judge agreed and set the next hearing for June 15, 2023. According to the judge, come next week the defence team should be in a position to tell the court whether or not Hardie would fight the extradition.

Said the judge: “Mr Hardie, no doubt you are aware why you are here. The United States has interest in you for an offence in that jurisdiction. I am adjourning this case until June 15 for your lawyers to take instructions. On the next occasion, the court expects that counsel should be in a position to state what the way forward will be. I don’t know if you will challenge the process.”

He was then remanded.

During an interview with the Observer on Thursday, Newman admitted that some members of the sector “are not angels” and said that any person who is guilty of a crime should face their “judgement”.

Newman, however, could not confirm whether the accused is a member of any legitimate local transport operators organisation.

“This operator found himself in serious hot water with the United States. If they want him, he should be sent there to answer to charges. We have to find a way to reduce the number of criminal elements in the sector. It is our responsibility. Situations like this show up the sector in a very negative light. We are urging Government and private sector to partner with us to clean our very important sector,” Newman said.

“This month is Road Safety Awareness Month. Involvement in drugs and crime should not be a part of our mantra. We should be concerned about persons like those, and we have to find a way to clean them up,” he added.