By ARTESIA DAVIS, Guardian Senior Reporter

Defense lawyers for alleged drug kingpin Melvin Maycock Sr and 13 of his associates are trying to convince a Supreme Court judge that the country's wiretap laws are illegal. The evidence on which Florida federal prosecutors are relying in support of requests for the men's extradition was gathered through phone taps.

If the wiretaps are found to be illegal, the evidence against the men will be inadmissible.

Maurice Glinton, who first filed the challenge in 2006, argued yesterday that the Listening Devices Act, which governs wiretap laws, was enacted to legislate the gathering of evidence for use in Bahamian courts not foreign ones.

Glinton said the law in its present form gives the commissioner of police unfettered power to invade a person's constitutional right to privacy by giving his officers approvals to conduct wiretaps. According to Glinton, freedom of expression and freedom of speech should not be violated without court supervision.

Glinton said the authorizations issued by the commissioner in the extradition case were defective because they did not identify the person who was permitted to intercept those calls. Additionally, he said that the police chief did not specify the crimes the men were suspected of committing when he gave approval for the men's phone calls to be intercepted.

Glinton said the law does not meet constitutional requirements. He said that the use of listening devices could never be justified as reasonable in a democratic society. Glinton said he was unconcerned that evidence gathered under the wiretap laws had previously gone unchallenged.

But he contended that the current and past interpretation of those laws was "making a mockery of the constitution and its provisions."

Glinton will continue his submissions before Justice Jon Isaacs next week. The extradition proceedings against the men cannot proceed in the magistrates' court until the issue is determined.

Maycock Sr., who was arrested on the extradition request in July, is being held at prison. 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 because of delays in hearing the constitutional challenge.