For the third time in less than two months former race car driver and businessman Peter Morgan has had his sentencing on a narco-trafficking offence postponed in a Brooklyn Federal Court.
Morgan, who threw in the towel and pleaded guilty months ago, was scheduled to be sentenced at midday yesterday, but the matter was postponed to December 29.
He was originally scheduled to be sentenced on October 9 but his lawyer had then requested November 20. However, just two days before that date prosecutor Benton Campbell wrote to judge Edward Korman and requested that the matter be postponed to yesterday’s date. It is not clear who requested yesterday that the matter be pushed back to just two days before the year ends.
Morgan had pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine into the US, an admission that could likely see him spend at least the next ten years in jail. His guilty plea came shortly after that of drug kingpin Roger Khan who has since been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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 Piarco International 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, some time 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 some time between December 1, 2001 and August 31, 2003, he trafficked in cocaine by importation.
Everything in his power to assist
Meanwhile, Narine, who was charged with conspiracy to import drugs into the US and who likely played a key role in the drug case against Morgan has also not been sentenced even though officials in Guadeloupe have indicated that he has completed a sentence he was serving in that country when he was extradited to the US. The officials indicated that they subtracted the remaining years from the time Narine served in the US jail on remand.
Narine and his wife Susan were expected to be sentenced on November 13, but their sentencing has now been set for January 22, 2010 before the same judge that Morgan is before.
It is believed that Narine also threw in the towel after Morgan, years after he was slapped with the charges of conspiracy to import drugs into the US and conspiracy to possess drugs in 2003. In a handwritten letter on June 15, 2009 seen by this newspaper he appealed to Judge 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 at the time of his extradition, Narine was to be returned to Guadeloupe to finish his sentence.
In 2003, Narine was charged along with his wife Susan, his 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 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.
In his letter to the judge, David Narine said he had done everything within his power to assist the federal government with “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 was provided to the US 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.
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 every-day (basis), and have also become the overseer (or pastor) of the church within our unit….”
