Accused drug dealers Lebert Ramcharan and Donovan 'Plucky' Williams were yesterday handed over to United States marshals, two days after the Appeal Court turned down their applications against extradition.

"They were handed over at approximately 9:00 am at the Norman Manley Airport," a highly credible police source told the Observer yesterday.
The source declined to say where in the United States both men were taken, offering only that they were flown out of the island by a US Marshals Service jet.

Ramcharan (left) and Williams. flown to the US

Yesterday, the Sunday Observer reported that Ramcharan's brother, Councillor Answerd Ramcharan (JLP, Red Hills division), had said they would take their appeal to the United Kingdom Privy Council, Jamaica's final appeal court.
"We are going to take it to the Privy Council for the fact that justice was not served," Councillor Ramcharan told the Sunday Observer after the Appeal Court decision was handed down on Friday.

Lebert Ramcharan, described by US President George W Bush as a "drug kingpin", and Williams were wanted by US prosecutors on drug trafficking charges.
US prosecutors alleged that Ramcharan and Williams smuggled millions of dollars worth of cocaine into the US through their Colombian connections.

Both men were held by narcotics agents in March 2004 as part of an international crackdown on the cocaine trade.
They were ordered extradited in the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court in June 2005 by Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle, but applied for judicial review of the extradition order.

The provisional charges against them included possession of cocaine and conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and attempting to import 1,422 pounds (647 kilograms) of cocaine into the United States. However, the court dropped the third charge because of insufficient evidence.

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