By ARTESIA DAVIS, NG Senior Reporter, artesia@nasguard.com

It took officers from the Drug Enforcement Unit four years to find Melvin Maycock Sr. after federal prosecutors requested his extradition on drug smuggling charges. But extradition proceedings aren't likely to commence against him any time soon because of a pending constitutional motion that challenges the legality of the country's wiretapping laws.

The evidence in support of the request for extradition was gathered through phone intercepts by officers from the Drug Enforcement Unit.

Lawyer Dion Smith, an associate in the firm of Lockhart and Munroe, confirmed that a constitutional challenge has been filed on behalf of Maycock, the alleged head of an international drug trafficking organization. Thirteen men accused of being affiliated with the Maycock organization filed the same constitutional motion in 2006, but the matter has yet to be determined.

The pending motion has prevented the extradition hearings from proceeding in the magistrate's court. The other accused dealers: Melvin Maycock Jr, Torrey Lockhart, Laron Lockhart, Carl Culmer, Derrick Rigby, Wilfred Ferguson, Trevor Roberts, Devroy Moss, Shanto Curry, brothers Lynden and Bryan Deal, Gordon Newbold and Sheldon Moore were each freed on $100,000 bail in 2006.

Lawyer Maurice Glinton first filed the challenge after the Privy Council, the country's final appellate court, denied a constitutional challenge of the country's extradition treaty with the U.S. government. Glinton filed that motion on behalf of Roberts, Moss, Curry, Newbold, Moore and the Deals.

Glinton had argued that the treaty was null and void because it lacked prior parliamentary approvals.

A Supreme Court judge upheld the argument in 2005, but the Privy Council overturned the decision in 2007 and ordered the case to proceed "expeditiously".

Up to that point, the other six men's extradition hearing was underway in the magistrate's court, but the case was suspended when they adopted the challenge of the wiretap laws.

All 14 men will appear before Magistrate Carolita Bethel for an update on the progress of the motions on September 4.