Shaheed 'Roger' Khan

However he never reached Guyana as he was met by US law enforcement officials in Trinidad & Tobago and escorted to the United States of America.

Around 6 a.m. he was escorted by three heavily armed policemen and put on a flight to Trinidad & Tobago. An official statement by the Office of the Prosecutor General indicated that Khan was being expelled because of illegal entry.

After his preventive incarceration was lifted by a prosecuting attorney, police officers took Khan from his cell in the Santo Boma penitentiary straight to the international airport and put on a flight to Trinidad.

Khan was arrested on June 15 in a sting operation in Paramaribo in which police netted 213 kilos of cocaine. In Guyana he was wanted for questioning in the theft of 33 AK-47 rifles of the Guyana Defense Force earlier this year.

According to an eyewitness, the deportee was handcuffed and guarded by three heavily armed policemen. On arrival at the Piarco Airport in Trinidad, Khan was arrested and subsequently transported to Miami, USA.

According to reports, he may appear in a Brooklyn court on Friday, most likely for preliminary hearing. In April this year he was indicted by the same court for cocaine trafficking between 2001-2006.

Tom Walsh, spokesman for the US Embassy in Suriname, would not comment on the reported arrest of Khan in Trinidad.

“I can only confirm that the US submitted a formal request on June 19th for his provisional arrest on charges for cocaine trafficking to the United States,” said the official.

He further noted that Khan’s arrest by Suriname police was a “major strike against narco-trafficking”.

Up to Thursday the Suriname authorities had not responded to the US request, but indicated that they had the request under consideration.

After Khan was expelled, Walsh said, “It is a different situation now.”  He expressed the hope that, since there was an international arrest warrant out for the Guyanese suspect, the US government was waiting for that to happen, “but I can not confirm that he was arrested in Trinidad”.

Speaking to journalists, Justice Minister Chandrikapersad Santokhi said that only Surinamese law enforcement personnel were involved in the deportation of Khan, starting from where he was taken out of prison and transported to the airport.

There were speculations that he was taken out of prison by US officers. However, Santokhi stated that Khan was escorted by detectives of the Suriname police on the flight to Trinidad.

At arrival at the Piarco Airport in Trinidad immigration officials were informed that Khan was a deportee and subsequently handed over to the Trinidad authorities.

Eventually he was handed over to US law enforcement officials who came to Trinidad to take him away to the US where he was indicted for cocaine trafficking.