-also has to serve out Guadeloupe prison term
David Narine, a man who was charged with conspiracy to import drugs into the US and who likely played a key role in the drug case against Guyanese businessman Peter Morgan is to be sentenced shortly in the US and also has to complete part of a sentence he was serving in Guadeloupe.
It is not clear how long after he was slapped with the charges of conspiracy to import drugs into the US and conspiracy to possess drugs in 2003 that Narine pleaded guilty but in a handwritten letter on June 15, 2009 seen by this newspaper he appealed to Judge Edward Korman in the US District Court in Brooklyn for an early sentencing date.
In response, his state-appointed lawyer informed the judge that Narine was extradited to the US for trial from Guadeloupe in 2005 where he was serving a sentence after being convicted. The document did not specify the nature of the offence on the French island. According to the arrangement made between the US and France, Narine was to be returned to Guadeloupe to finish his sentence.
“Based on conversations with the (US) government, the justice department is currently trying to negotiate changes to the extradition agreement so that Mr Narine can remain in the United States and finish his French sentence here,” the lawyer said. She said that Narine has agreed to delay his sentence a few more months while the negotiation takes place as he wishes to finish his sentence in the US.
In 2003 Narine was charged along with his wife Susan, brother William and his brother’s wife Savitree. William is still in jail and most of his court documents are under seal. Savitree was sentenced to time served on October 19, 2005 and is now out of jail.
Before he himself pleaded guilty Morgan had singled out David and Susan Narine for special mention and had charged in court documents that they were the real drug traffickers and that he was innocent.
However, Morgan earlier this year pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine into the US, an admission that could likely see him spend at least the next 10 years in jail.
The businessman was facing a three-count indictment which accused him of conspiring to import, possess and distribute five kilogrammes of cocaine between December 2001 and August 2003.
He was nabbed in March 2007 in Trinidad by Trinidadian and US authorities while he was in-transit at the airport. He was extradited to the US on August 23, 2007, after he withdrew a last-ditch appeal he had made in the Port-of-Spain Appellate Court. Morgan had initially attempted to have the extradition order made by Trinidad Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls on April 30, 2007, reversed. His lawyers had appealed but this was dismissed in the High Court and then a new appeal was filed.
According to one of the charges Morgan faced, sometime between October 1, 2001 and August 31, 2003, he knowingly and intentionally conspired with David Narine, Susan Narine, Hung-Fung Mar and other persons unknown, to traffic in cocaine by importation. The second charge, which he did not plead to, alleged that sometime between December 1, 2001 and August 31, 2003, he trafficked in cocaine by importation.
‘Everything in my power to assist’
In his recent letter to the judge, David Narine told the judge that he had done everything within his power to assist the federal government in “what they have requested.”
Like most of his co-accused in the case the majority of the documentation is under seal so it is not clear what assistance they provided to the government. In his letter Narine told the judge that he has been incarcerated since 2003 and that his wife, Susan and eight children are suffering and unable to visit with him.
“I am confused as to why I haven’t been sentenced regarding the matter of the alleged charges against me…” he said. He also said that he made attempts to communicate with his lawyer but all attempts were futile. The judge then ordered that the lawyer, Margaret M. Shalley respond, hence her reply informing of the French negotiation.
Narine also said he was “truly sorry for the great mistakes I’ve made in my life and have been utilizing my time wisely in an attempt to prevent any future violations of the law. In doing such I read and study God’s word on an everyday (basis), and have also become the overseer (or pastor) of the church within our unit….”
Before she was released, Susan Narine in October 2005 had also penned a letter to the judge about the impact her then 28-month incarceration was having on her.
And before she was released from jail Savitree, who was married to David’s brother William, had also been evaluated by court-appointed medical professionals on the impact of her imprisonment.
The woman who was 50 at the time related to her examiner that she moved to the US from Guyana at the age of 35 with her first husband and two children.
She said at the time of her arrest she was separated from her second husband, William.
Explaining her involvement in the case Savitree said: “These people from Guyana who work with my brother-in-law (David) – well, actually, they came from Trinidad … it has to do with them.”
Asked about her arrest she said: “Well, me and my husband (Williams) were working at the house (she had bought a house). My brother-in-law called my husband and my husband and I went to get these people from Kennedy Airport. We picked up the lady and the lady gave my husband a slip. We went and got them things for a hotel- she went back to Guyana but this first lady I met was here three or four days. My husband took her back to the airport and I went with him.”
That lady was Susan Narine and it was while at the airport all three of them were arrested.
Savitree said that at the airport her husband was first arrested and she became frightened as she believed his visa had expired.
She was then arrested and then Susan. Savitree related that after Susan was searched the authorities found well over US$100,000 in her possession and she (Savitree) was surprised and tried to find out why she was taking it back to Guyana.
The woman said she was told by her husband that his family in Guyana was either purchasing or renovating a hotel and that the money was being used to buy supplies for the hotel.
However, the following day in court she learned that she was being charged with crimes related to drugs. She said she was never involved in selling drugs and was angry at her husband for getting her involved in the case. She said whenever she had asked her husband about the family business “….he’d become angry and told me not to ask about his family business- and he would hit me.”
