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US: British man accused in import of 11,700 pounds of marijuana through
Brendan Kirby Press-Register, Alabama
Thursday 13 Jul 2006 A British man wanted for more than a decade on allegations that he helped smuggle more than 5 tons of marijuana into the United States through Baldwin County was en route to Mobile on Wednesday to face federal charges. Giles Carlyle Clarke, 48, recently lost an eight-year extradition fight and turned himself over to U.S. marshals at London's Heathrow Airport on Wednesday, authorities said. Law enforcement officials said he was expected to land in Mobile late Wednesday or today. A federal grand jury in Mobile indicted Clarke in 1992 as part of an investigation that led to the prosecution of more than 60 people, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Clarke was charged with conspiracy, importation and distribution of marijuana. Prosecutors said the conspiracy was responsible for the importation of 11,700 pounds of marijuana between 1983 and 1988. "That seems like a very large amount, and I can't speak to any case in my 19 years of law enforcement where I've seen more than that," said Charlie McNichol, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. According to prosecutors, Clarke was accused of participating in an extensive smuggling organization run by the husband-and-wife team of Billy and Ruby Williams in Baldwin County. The couple owned a residence in the area of Roberts Bayou where law enforcement investigators in May 1988 seized a specially made sailboat tied to a pier behind the house. The Williamses were convicted in federal court for their role, McNichol said. The indictment accuses Clarke and others of storing the drugs until they could be distributed to other locations. According to federal prosecutors, state and federal agents found 7,000 pounds of marijuana and 246 gallons of hashish oil from one shipment imported from Jamaica. The U.S. attorney's office said the boat had a double hull, creating a large compartment between the original hull and the outside hull where the drugs were hidden. Clarke told the Evening Standard, a London newspaper, that he worries about what will happen to him and his 10-year-old son, Max. The British media has described Clarke as an aristocrat. "I am devastated. The extradition leaves my son effectively an orphan. I have told him what is happening in the most positive way I can, but he is in a terrible state," the paper quoted Clarke. "I don't know what will happen, but if what I have heard about the Alabama justice system is true then I can expect very little from it." If convicted, Clarke would be sentenced to federal, not state, prison. Each of the counts carries a punishment of 10 years to life. Clarke, described in British news accounts as a furniture importer, denied the allegations. He told the Standard that he attracted the attention of the authorities only when he lent a friend money to fight criminal allegations stemming from the smuggling investigation. The friend fled while on bail and has eluded authorities ever since, the newspaper reported. Clarke's British lawyer, Graham Compton, told a British news service that Clarke owned a yacht that he chartered out then piloted for wealthy clients around the world. "I'm afraid his misfortune was knowing the man who was the head of the organization," Compton said. Clarke, whose family has owned the 1,200-acre Winterbourne Clenston estate in Dorset since 1066, was arrested by British authorities in 1997. Two weeks ago, he lost his extradition battle when the European Court of Human Rights rejected his case. In addition to his 10-year-old son, the Evening Standard reported that Clarke shares custody of his 14-year-old daughter, Jessica, with his first wife, an Italian Vogue model.
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