Andrew 'Pawpa' Brown - he's an icon and a legend on the southside of Belize City where he's known primarily as the owner of a football team and contributor to many community causes but the United States government says he's just a drug dealer and now they want him to stand trial in a Federal Court. With that, extradition proceedings for 'Pawpa' Brown and his brother Floyd Brown were launched today in the Magistrate's Court. Both men were picked up from their residences at 4:00 am on Friday morning on the authority of a warrant of apprehension issued by the Chief Magistrate. On Saturday they were told that they were wanted to face drug charges in the United States.
This afternoon they were taken to the Belize City Magistrate's Court under heavy armed police guard. The brothers have gotten an unlikely tandem of attorneys to defend them. The defense is led by Senior Counsel Dean Barrow who is backed up by his political opponent Richard "Dickie" Bradley and Ellis Arnold. Presenting the case on the behalf of the United States and Belize's Minister of Foreign Affairs is Solicitor General Elson Kaseke.
Kaseke disclosed to the court that the United States is accusing the Brown brothers of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine in the United States. The charges result form the 1999 operation involving Manuel Reina, a drug felon turned informer who the U.S. claims made phone calls to the Browns discussing and planning various drug transactions. With Reina's consent, the DEA recorded those phone calls and that forms the bulk of the evidence against them.
But this afternoon in court, the central matter of who did what was only peripheral as attorneys for both sides argued preliminary technical issue, specifically whether a request for extradition, which is required, was included in the U.S. request. Kaseke said it was a meaningless technicality but Barrow said it is critical to due process.
Dean Barrow, Attorney for Brown brothers
"What has been sought is really a provisional arrest warrant which will keep them until the application for extradition proper is made. In my view, the court can't issue that provisional arrest warrant because the requirement that the application for the warrant contain this statement as to an intention to proceed with extradition in due course is absent. If the Magistrate declines to issue the provisional arrest warrant, he has to set them free. That doesn't stop the United States from applying all over again either for a new provisional arrest, if they can remedy the defect, or to go straight to extradition. But we feel that the requirements of due process are fundamental and every point must be taken to underscore any non-compliance with those requirements."
Jules Vasquez,
Are you concerned about the political implications of this? The United States has named these people as serious drug traffickers and importers of cocaine to the United States, that is what the U.S. says. Are you concerned about the local and international politics of it?
Dean Barrow,
"No. These people are being sought for extradition purposes. I am representing them in an effort to ensure that they have all their rights respected, that there is due process before any possibility of extradition can take place. I'm very much concerned with what happened in the (George) Herbert matter and it appears there is no chance now of repetition. But in the larger context I have to have a fundamental preoccupation with Belizean nationals having all their rights vindicated before they are surrendered to a foreign power."
Jules Vasquez,
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows but so does lawyering. You appeared today with junior counsel Dickie Bradley. How odd was that?
Dean Barrow,
"Well we are professionals. The clients sought my services separately and by way of a completely different arrangement sought Mr. Bradley and Mr. Arnold's services. That's fine. As I said we are attorneys and I am sure we can both discharge our jobs in a professional manner."
Jules Vasquez,
When eXtradtiion proceedings are launched it is a virtual certainty because it's a contract between two states and it's a virtual certainty that it will proceed. Now these gentlemen have retained two former Attorney Generals and a long practicing attorney. Do you think they can successfully redress this extradition attempt?
Dean Barrow,
"Well I hope so. One cannot discount what you have said, that it is most unusual when attempts at extradition are successfully resisted, but I hope that this will be one of those unusual times."
The Chief Magistrate will give his judgement on this issue tomorrow afternoon until then the Brown brothers remain detained.
If the name Floyd Brown seems familiar, it should be, his Ladyville home was the scene of one of the most violence murders recently recorded (See Domestic Raped and Murdered) where two teenaged brothers, 14 and 15 have been accused of raping and then decapitating Brown's maid with a samurai sword. Police concluded that the murder was not drug related but was the product of a burglary.