After three postponements, alleged drug kingpin Samuel “Ninety” Knowles finally faced formal drug related charges in a Florida court on Tuesday, more than a month after he was extradited to the United States.
Knowles, who is being held at the Florida Detention Center in downtown Miami, agreed to a pre-trial detention.
This means that the 44-year-old will remain in jail pending trial.
The Bahama Journal was told that this decision was taken due to the fact that Knowles is considered both a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Knowles was charged with importation and possession with intent to distribute five kilos or more of cocaine.
According to Alicia Valle, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneyﾒs Office in Miami, Florida, Knowles, who appeared before Magistrate Edwin Torres, stood mute at the arraignment and the court entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
He was represented by court appointed defense counsel, Ken White.
The Bahama Journal has been told that Mr. White is a private counsel paid by the court.
The U.S. government initially appointed Stewart Abrams to represent Knowles in the case, but the Assistant Federal Public Defender later revealed that he had represented Brian Bethel in an earlier case.
Bethel is reportedly one of the prosecutionﾒs key witnesses. This was the reason behind Knowlesﾒ case being postponed a third time several weeks ago.
Knowles was extradited from The Bahamas to the United States August 28 despite a pending hearing in the Supreme Court.
The appeal was based on US President George W. Bushﾒs labeling of Knowles as a drug kingpin, under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
The Act, which became law in December 1999, targets ﾖ on a worldwide basis ﾖ people US officials say are significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their organisations, and operatives.
Its fundamental objective is to deny foreign individuals and entities access to the U.S. financial system and all trade and transactions involving U.S. companies and individuals.
Knowlesﾒ attorneys, who maintained their client would not receive a fair trial in United States, had hoped that he could have been brought back to The Bahamas so that he could be given due process.
Appearing in the Supreme Court last week, they were pushing for Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson and Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell to appear before the court to explain why Knowles was not in The Bahamas, or be found in contempt of court.
But Supreme Court Justice John Lyons denied their request.
According to Justice Lyons, even if Knowles were allowed to return to The Bahamas, his application would have failed.
“Were I to accede to this application, it would allow Knowles to carry on with this impossible task. After perhaps another two or three yearsﾒ delay, he would have ended up in the same place. I could order his return to the jurisdiction, but in three years after the appeals have been done, he would be back in Miami,” the Supreme Court Justice said.
US officials are hopeful that another 24 persons will be extradited from The Bahamas to face charges, mainly in connection with the alleged drug trafficking.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
