Alleged drug kingpin Samuel 'Ninety' Knowles was handed over to the American Drug Enforcement Agency yesterday afternoon and flown to Miami.
The extradition of the man called a "cocaine kingpin" by President George W Bush brought to an end a six-year legal battle during which Knowles was locked away at Fox Hill Prison.
Since the year 2000, Knowles has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in hiring top-flight lawyers to keep him out of American hands.
A senior British QC, Edward Fitzgerald, frequently flew the Atlantic from London to represent Knowles in court.
But the Privy Council's recent ruling against him meant that Knowles had run out of options. It only needed Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell to sign the formal papers for him to be flown out of the country.
It is understand that Knowles, 46, was finally surrendered into the custody of the DEA yesterday afternoon in a move which could provoke a political backlash.
The man alleged by the US to have channelled millions of dollars worth of drugs into Florida is a popular "folklore" figure in some over-the-hill communities.
Repeatedly, supporters have said it was wrong to consider extraditing a Bahamian to the US for offences allegedly committed outside this country.
Knowles is known to have had powerful friends in political circles and observers felt some eleventh-hour "technicality" might be introduced to obstruct the process.
However, the Bahamian judicial system – after countless hearings – decided otherwise once the final appeal to the Privy Council was turned down.
The sudden departure of the man known for his largesse to fellow inmates came amid reported discord between Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson and Mr Mitchell over the Knowles issue.
Mrs Maynard-Gibson reportedly said on radio that her Cabinet colleague should sign the extradition papers for Knowles' departure, as all legal avenues had been exhausted.
However, her comments did not find favour with some of her colleagues. It was suggested that Knowles had one more option open to him – a court hearing to uphold his lawyers' claim that he was unlikely to get a fair trial in the US because of President Bush's "kingpin" comment.
However, this was apparently bypassed when Knowles was escorted out of the Bahamas in a hush-hush operation yesterday.
Last week, former US ambassador to the Bahamas, Richard Blankenship, told The Tribune that Knowles should be extradited immediately if the Bahamas was to be taken seriously as a nation.
He said the Privy Council hearing was Knowles' last chance to escape justice.
He and another former ambassador, Arthur Schechter, are understood to have pressed home the need for Knowles' extradition in Washington, DC.
It was under Mr Schechter's ambassadorship that Knowles was taken into custody. Both he and Mr Blankenship were deeply involved in anti-cocaine activities during their spells in Nassau.
Source: The Tribune
