Application denied BY Privy Council:
By ARTESIA DAVIS, Guardian Senior Reporter -
Nassau, Bahamas:



The Privy Council yesterday refused an application by alleged drug dealers Dwight and Keva Major for permission to file a challenge to a court's order that they be sent to Miami, Florida to face drug charges.

Former foreign affairs minister Fred Mitchell signed a warrant of surrender last year authorizing the couple's extradition after their lawyer failed to file an appeal to the Privy Council within the required time.

And now the Privy Council has declined to grant lawyer Keod Smith special permission to file an appeal to its judicial committee more than a year after the Court of Appeal's decision.

Now the only thing preventing the couple's extradition is a stay that was filed in the Supreme Court to prevent Bahamian authorities from executing the warrant of surrender.

Bernard Turner, the director of public prosecutions, said once the stay is removed "The law will take its course."

The Majors, both 39 and the parents of four children, are wanted on charges of conspiracy to import cocaine and marijuana into the United States. They have been fighting the extradition request since 2003.

Major was already in prison on a charge of conspiring to smuggle 1,600 kilos of Colombian cocaine into Long Island when U.S. prosecutors made a request for his extradition. His wife has been in prison since she was picked up on the extradition warrant in 2003. Their children are with their maternal grandparents.

Prosecutors alleged that while in his prison cell Major called his wife and other subordinates on a mobile phone and planned his drug smuggling operations.

They both have pending cases in the magistrates' courts. Magistrate Carolita Bethell is expected to rule in an asset forfeiture case involving Mr. Major today.

And Magistrate Linda Virgill is expected to give a ruling next month in connection with $850,000 in suspected drug money that police seized from Mrs. Major in 2001. According to the Extradition Act, the Majors' pending criminal cases can be withdrawn to facilitate their extradition.

11/09/07