KINGSTON (Observer): DANCEHALL act Busy Signal was yesterday extradited to the United States
to face trial for jumping bail shortly before the start of his
cocaine-trafficking trial a decade ago.
The artiste, whose real name is Glendale Goshia Gordon, left the island
before noon, accompanied by United States Marshals who had arrived in
the island on Monday.
Shantal Chin, the mother of one of Gordon's children, told the Jamaica Observer that she is hoping that all will turn out well.
"Be positive," was Chin's message to the father of her 3-year-old
daughter. "We miss him and we are praying. I know that everything will
be okay."
Gordon was flown to the United States just under a month after waiving
his right to an extradition hearing in the Corporate Area Resident
Magistrate's Court where he was represented by Queen's Counsel KD Knight
and Charles 'Advoket' Ganga-Singh.
The artiste allegedly fled the United States in 2002 before the start of
his trial on a cocaine charge in October of that year. Gordon had since
travelled to other countries, but avoided the US.
He was arrested last month by members of the Fugitive Apprehension Team
at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston as he disembarked
a flight after being deported from the United Kingdom (UK).
The UK had refused entry to Gordon, who had been travelling under the
name Reanno Devon Gordon on his way from another European country where
he had been performing.
Gordon is being extradited on a provisional warrant for failure to
appear for trial in the United States. Knight told the Observer that his
client could not be tried in the United States on the drug charges
because the warrant for his arrest relates to his failure to show for
trial and not the drug charges that caused him to flee that country.
However, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said that
the US could still try Gordon for the alleged drug offence, but that it
would have to seek leave from the Jamaican Government in order to
proceed.
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