Giles Carlyle-Clarke, an Englishman who has been wanted by U.S. authorities ever since his arrest in 1997 on charges of being involved in a £60 million marijuana smuggling operation dating back to the 1980s, has lost his final legal battle against extradition and is being flown over to Alabama.
The 48-year-old, a furniture importer and member of an aristocratic family whose history can be traced all the way back to the Domesday book of 1086, had his case rejected two weeks ago by the European Court of Human Rights after earlier having lost in the High Court. He had claimed it was no coincidence that his deportation was approved only ten days after President Bush’s controversial visit to the UK in late 2003, when the future release of nine British detainees at Guantanamo was discussed. British and US authorities denied the link. A magistrate granted the American request for extradition in January 1999.
Carlyle-Clarke is accused of being part of a deal to smuggle four tonnes of marijuana into the U.S. state of Alabama from Jamaica between 1983-88. US authorities say it took so long in the first place to charge him because they weren’t able to identify or trace him. In response he noted that they already had his address from an affidavit he had signed in 1989 to affirm that he had lent a friend, Robert de Lisser, £20,000 to help fight drug charges; in addition, they had had a photo of him since 1988.
He had met De Lisser, who was alleged to have been the kingpin behind the smuggling operation and has been on the run ever since, through their mutual love of sailing. It was on Carlyle-Clarke’s luxury yacht, The Can Can, that three convicted criminals, presumably in exchange for lighter sentences, have sworn the smuggling took place. Carlyle-Clarke denied this, adding that he had been living in the open ever since and had even taken trips to the U.S.
If convicted Carlyle-Clarke faces the prospect of 25 years away from his ten-year-old son who he has raised single-handedly; his son will live with his grandparents. He also has a 13-year-old daughter who lives with his first wife in Italy and stayed with him for holidays.
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