A sobbing Peter Morgan, accused of running a ring in Guyana that trafficked drugs, was sentenced to ten years in prison yesterday afternoon by Judge Edward Korman in a Brooklyn Federal Court, according to a Capitol News report.

However, the self-confessed drug trafficker-who had his sentencing postponed thrice last year-may be out in another six years, because the judge sentenced him to time served. Morgan has been in custody since 2007.

Should Morgan deliver on the promise he made with tears streaming down his face, he may very well become an advocate against drug trafficking upon his return to Guyana. He told the court that having seen the consequences of his actions, he will enlighten people who are still involved in the illicit trade about the consequences.

While US Prosecutor Shannon Jones insisted that Morgan was a supervisor in a ring that included his family members, his lawyer stated that “no one on the planet would say that his client was two thirds as culpable as Roger Khan.”

Khan- the reputed drug kingpin of Guyana- was sentenced to 15 years late last year after he too had thrown in the towel and pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.

Morgan’s sentencing took place following a spirited discussion between Prosecutor Jones and his lawyer Alan Futerfas on the role the drug trafficker played in the conspiracy to import cocaine into the US and other countries from Guyana. Morgan, who pleaded guilty in June last year, had waived his rights to an appeal and the judge had told him that he faced a minimum of 10 years in prison and the maximum of a life sentence.

At that time, the drug dealer told the court that he fully understood what he was doing and he was asked to explain at his plea hearing what he did. He explained that between December 2001 and August 2003, he conspired with David Narine to transport cocaine in and out of Guyana and that he was fully aware of his actions and his conduct.

He said he agreed with Narine to import cocaine into the US. Narine is expected to be sentenced next week, after also pleading guilty. He had been brought to the US from Guadeloupe, where he was serving a drug trafficking sentence, several years earlier.

‘Supervised’
Yesterday, Jones told the court that Morgan supervised not only his family members, but he was also involved with other known and unknown drug traffickers, including the Narines and Dave Persaud. Persaud was gunned down in front of the then Palm Court on Main Street and the US authorities have accused Khan’s ‘Phantom Squad’ of committing the act as he had accused Persaud of snitching on him in New York.

While, arguing for his client to be given a light sentence, Futerfas made mention of the sentence handed down  to Khan and urged that he be given much less since Khan was involved in “murder, violence, phantom and para-military squads” all of which his client was not culpable of.

He accused Narine of being the mastermind of the conspiracy of which Morgan was just the manager. But the prosecutor countered that it was Morgan who sent drugs to the US, Canada and England and it was his family members and others who either laundered the money or used it to support his auto sales business in Guyana.

Jones argued that when drug dealers remain in Guyana, they are outside the reach of the US justice system and it was only after a trip to Trinidad that Morgan was arrested. She pointed out that Khan was also arrested in Trinidad and Narine in another Caribbean island.

It was the same argument Jones presented at last December’s sentencing of former army major David Clarke, who was sentenced to time served. She had said if Clarke had not handed himself over to the US authorities he would not have faced justice. Clarke travelled to the US after he learnt of his indictment and later became a state witness and is now under witness protection in the US.
‘Nervous’
Given a chance to speak, Morgan who said he was nervous, broke down in tears as he expressed remorse for his actions and what he did to his wife and children in Guyana. The sobbing drug dealer said in a three-minute statement that he did not think of the consequences of his actions and then made the promise to become an advocate against drug trafficking.

But prosecutor Jones was not impressed, subsequently pointing out that the man was in his mid-forties and as such his drug trafficking was no youthful indiscretion.

Morgan, 42, 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.

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.

The two Narines, along with William and Savitree Narine, were charged since 2003 with conspiracy to import and conspiracy to possess narcotics in the US.

William Narine was found guilty late last year and was sentenced to time served and five years supervised leave while his wife Savitree was also sentenced to time served back in 2005.

Earlier last year, Morgan had argued that the only reason he and his relatives travelled with large sums of foreign currency was because he benefited from favourable exchange rates using Guyana dollars to purchase foreign currency, which was then used to pay overseas suppliers of his company, Morgan Auto Sales.

In the memorandum filed through his lawyer Futerfas, Morgan had said that for almost 20 years he used market fluctuations to trade for profit in currency, as the unusual economic conditions in Guyana forced most businessmen in this country to pay vendors in other currencies.

He said that his business, which was established in 1991, utilised the New York bank account of Sabena Manufacturing, established by his father James Morgan at the JP Morgan Chase Bank way back in 1985. Since the establishment of that bank account, Morgan and his relatives made over 60 trips to the US, carrying large sums of US and Canadian dollars along with British pounds totalling millions of dollars, all of which were declared.

The JP Morgan Chase Bank account has since been closed by US authorities and the proceeds confiscated by the state following the arrest and conviction of Morgan’s sister Sabrina Budhram and her husband Arnold on money laundering charges.