WHEN WILL THE US EXTRADITE ITS ONLY OTHER MAJOR FUGITIVE IN ANTIGUA & BARBUDA ?

David Algernon Joseph

While we have repeatedly covered the Leroy King case from Antigua, the country's former Financial Services Regulatory Commission head, wanted for his primary role in the $7bn Stanford International Bank Ponzi scheme, and whose decade-old extradition case is stalled in the Antiguan justice system indefinitely, inside sources advise that there is one other major fugitive from American justice that is living freely & openly in Antigua. Why will the United States not seek to extradite him; Does the US no longer have any confidence in the Rule of Law, as it is practiced on Antigua & Barbuda, because of the Leroy King case ?

The offender's name is David Algernon Joseph, wanted since 1999 in the United States, for cocaine trafficking, and other related offenses; he also has a prior weapons conviction, and violated Parole in that case as well. While his co-defendant received a life sentence, Joseph has cheated justice, never having served a day in prison for his crimes. Though he appears on the INTERPOL wanted list, Antigua advises that he has never been the subject of an extradition, and law enforcement authorities there state that they will act if they receive a warrant seeking his extradition. What happened here ?

The answer is most likely whether the Leroy King case, where all the dodges and excuses have been employed to delay King's extradition, has so poisoned America's faith in Antigua's court system, that it no longer desires to waste time & money chasing another fugitive.  Repeated judicial reassignments ad nauseum, allowing the defendant file bogus appeal after appeal, sitting on the case for months and even years without rulings, all tricks more common to a court in the Banana Republics, than an English Common Law jurisdiction, have frozen the 2009 extradition in place.

 It is doubtful that he will ever see the inside of a Texas courtroom, as his probable disclosures there about Sir Allen Stanford's payments to Antigua's political elite might implicate powerful individuals in corrupt activities they prefer to keep hidden permanently. Therefore, David Joseph remains free as a tropical bird in Antigua. A reliable source on that island reports that he continues to be engaged in drug trafficking, and we wonder where he is placing his criminal profits in Antigua's banks.

Leroy King

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©2018 Kenneth Rijock; Contributed by Kenneth Rijock.