by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 8 – Two former officials of the Bahamas were arraigned on drug charges on January 8. Inner City Press was the only media in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates courtroom when it happened.
Both men were detained, and will be seen by the District Judge on January 10.
Back in November DOJ announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging 13 defendants with cocaine importation and related weapons offenses in connection with their participation in a massive cocaine importation conspiracy enabled by corrupt Bahamian government officials, including high-ranking members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (“RBPF”). ELVIS NATHANIEL CURTIS, an RBPF Chief Superintendent, and DARRIN ALEXANDER ROKER, a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (“RBDF”), were arrested on Monday in Florida and had their initial appearances yesterday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
LORIELMO STEELE-POMARE, a/k/a “Steele” and WILLIAM SIMEON, a/k/a “Harvey Smith,” a/k/a “William Jacques,” a/k/a “Romeo Russell,” a/k/a “Dario Rolle,” were arrested overseas on Monday. LUIS FERNANDO OROZCO-TORO was arrested overseas yesterday. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods. It was Curtis and Roker who were arraigned on January 8, both with retained (paid) counsel.
On April 8 a man identified as Ulrique Jean Baptiste was arraigned. His CJA lawyer had been assigned to represent another named defendant, Theodore Nathaniel Adderley, apparently (still?) not in detention. Judge Woods said his deputy would fix it with a minute order - and set this defendant, "this human," on for June 30.
The overall case is USA v. Curtis, et al., 1:24-cr-655 (Woods)
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