Young JAMAICAN NARCOTICS detectives, who in recent weeks have arrested eight persons on warrants seeking their extradition to the United States for trial on drug trafficking and related charges, yesterday launched a region-wide search for Alex Young, 33, a Colombian national, who they believe is a mastermind in the trafficking of cocaine from Colombia through Jamaica to the United States.
"We have released his name because he knows that he is being sought by us. We have reasons to believe that he is in Panama," Senior Supt. Carl Williams, head of the Police Narcotics Division, told The Gleaner yesterday.
The police said that Young, who was born in San Andres, a little island off the coast of Colombia, was behind the movement of millions of dollars worth of cocaine from Colombia to Jamaica en route to the United States. According to the police, Young, who had been living in Jamaica, fled recently to Panama, where he is in hiding.
"We regard him as one of the biggest players coming out of Colombia. He has been implicated in the shipment of large quantities of cocaine to Jamaica over the past four years," SSP Williams said.
The police said that while Young was living here, he acquired several properties in Montego Bay, St. James; Portmore, St. Catherine, and in Kingston.
The search for Young is part of the massive multi-national drug operation being conducted throughout the island by local and overseas narcotics agents.
Two Colombians were among four foreign nationals ordered deported yesterday when they were taken before the Corporate Area Criminal Court at Half-Way Tree.
The police named them as: Dan Erick Archibald, Serveso Camargo Hawkins Garcia (Colombians), Faustino Fermin Newball Archibald of Panama, and Sergio Enrique Wanton Dela Hoz, of Cuba. They were picked up last weekend during anti-narcotics operations in St. Ann.
They pleaded guilty to breaches of the Immigration Act and were each fined $7,000 and were allowed 10 days in which to pay.
