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Drummer pleads guilty in arms case tied to Trinidad and Tobago
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Drummer pleads guilty in arms case tied to Trinidad and TobagoBy Jeff Shields Staff Writer Posted September 20 2001 FORT LAUDERDALE ? A New York man pleaded guilty to possession of firearms Wednesday in an alleged plot to smuggle 70 machine guns to an Islamic fundamentalist in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.Keith Andre Glaude, 45, faces up to 10 years in prison after he was caught picking up weapons federal prosecutors say were intended for a high-level official of the Jamaat al Muslimeen. That group was behind a 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad that left 26 people dead. Some of the guns used in that attempt came from the Fort Lauderdale area, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.In U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, Glaude admitted to picking up duffel bags filled with AK-47 and Mac-10 machine guns with silencers on behalf of Lance Small.Glaude, a native Trinidadian, was a member of the Jamaat al Muslimeen in the 1980s, and apparently agreed to pick up the guns for Small because he owed him money.Glaude, a drummer who lives in New York City, has maintained all along that he was not involved in a conspiracy, but was an unwitting mule for Small, whom he spoke to during a February trip to a festival in Trinidad."I got into this by going to Carnival to play music, and the guy Lance Small told me there were these guns," Glaude told U.S. District Judge Wilkie Ferguson Jr. "This is my first time in trouble in my life, your honor. If possessing this gun is what I did, I'm guilty."Ferguson scheduled sentencing for Nov. 30. Glaude, who has no criminal past, is expected to get a large reduction in sentence from the maximum.Although leaders of the Muslimeen in Trinidad have denied any connection with Glaude, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday has pointed to the case as evidence of an imminent insurrection.Newspapers in Trinidad were quoting U.S. Intelligence sources in reports this week Osama bin Laden has a terrorist cell there. One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no link with bin Laden has been established in the Glaude case.Glaude was arrested May 31 by agents for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ATF agent Steve McKean, working with an informant, had arranged the deal with Small over the phone in February. Then Small, who had loaned Glaude $2,500, approached him for a favor, Glaude said.Glaude met undercover ATF agents at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, then drove to a warehouse at Davie Boulevard and Andrews Avenue. The agents showed him duffel bags filled with 60 AK-47 machine guns, 10 Mac-10 machine guns, and 10 machine gun silencers. Glaude was arrested after helping to load the Mac-10s into his van.Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Powell said the investigation is ongoing, but declined comment on whether the United States would seek to extradite Small from Trinidad and Tobago. Ramesh Maharaj, the attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago, could not be reached for comment.Jeff Shields can be reached at jshields@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.