Convicted drug kingpin Roger Khan was yesterday scheduled to be deported to Guyana but was told at the last minute that the journey was postponed, his attorney Glen Hanoman last night said.
He was not told why the trip was postponed and continues to be held at a Florida detention Centre, Hanoman told Stabroek News at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri last night.
Associates of Khan were also seen at the CJIA but left just after midnight. “He was (scheduled) but he didn’t make the flight. I don’t know what happened”, Hanoman said.
“…I don’t know what went wrong. They didn’t tell him anything,” he added.
Khan’’s attorney said that when he spoke to Khan, around 7:30 pm yesterday he was anxious to return home.
He said that unlike most persons earmarked for deportation that turn to the courts to “fight” the deportation, Khan wants to return home. “He wants to come home”, Hanoman said.
Khan would be returning to volatile circumstances here, smack in the middle of a political stalemate in which his alleged deeds are constantly invoked. Given that he was known to be connected with the drug trade and to have mobilized a private mini army, there are many questions about his role in a series of events during what President David Granger has dubbed `The Troubles’.
Under the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, Khan was thought to have been given free rein to go after persons he determined to be criminals in the period following the 2002 jail-break when five escapees triggered a crime wave the likes of which had never before been seen in the country.
Analysts say the million-dollar question is whether the Granger administration will proceed with charges against Khan on his arrival here. There is the view that Khan could be prevailed upon to provide information on his activities here post the 2002 jail-break and up to the point he fled from Guyana. He was later arrested in Suriname and was seized by US authorities in Trinidad while ostensibly en route to Guyana.
Khan, was recently released from a US prison after serving almost ten years of a 15-year sentence for drug trafficking.
Following his release from prison on July 8th, Khan was being kept in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE is the law enforcement agency of the federal government of the US tasked to enforce the immigration laws of the country and to investigate criminal and terrorist activity of transnational organisations and aliens within the United States.
ICE on its website had said that Khan was “in custody” at the Krome North Service Processing Center detention facility.
In October of 2009, while sentencing Khan, US Federal Judge Dora Irizarry had stated that following his prison term he would be placed on five years’ supervised release, but would more than likely be deported.
She had warned him that if he re-entered the US illegally after deportation, he would be arrested and sentenced to a much longer prison term than 15 years.
