http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7328974.stm This is slightly worrying on a number of levels, but mainly the fact they court would allow someone to be extradited despite the fact that no crime has been committed, not just that the crime was committed in a foreign country.
You can't use the excuse that a sale is legal in country 'A', so OK to export to country 'B' where it's not legal, and this is a case where international cooperation is essential. On the flip side, if a US company was selling guns to UK customers over the internet, disguised in "false or misleading packaging", we'd expect the same cooperation. (Though whether we'd get it is another matter.)
Sounds to me that they knew exactly what they were doing and carfully built up layers of credible deniability should they get rumbled. Don't you think it's more that just a coincidence that all of their customers in the US turn out to be big players in the manufacture and distrubution of crystal meth? Plus if you are in the chemical distribution business you will know what your products can be and often are used for. If you suddenly get large orders for a particular batch of chemicals on a regular basis, wouldn't that set off alarm bells? Additionally, I would hope that if you are entirely honest then you might suspect something suspicious and report it. Hell, we had a recent clear out of dangerous chemicals at work due a requirement from the police to identify any potential components for weapons of mass destruction and anything that was on the list had to be justified as to why we had it and why we wanted to keep it, if not then we had to get rid of it. We even found one of the main components for ecstacy, which is apparently now closely monitored and very difficult to get, we of course disposed of it. My Point here is that this couple knew exactly what they were doing, tried to cover their tracks and got caught, they deserve all they get as far as I'm concerned.
Add to all that, the article mentions that the couple got married earlier in the week. How convenient that they cannot now be forced to testify against each other because of martial privilege.
It raises some thorny issues though if they never set foot in the US. If they had personally delivered the chemicals to the US and had therefore broken the law on US soil and then fled to the UK, that would be one thing. In this case, the comitted acts which were legal in their country of residence, but illegal in another country which they never visited, and so I think extradition is unwarranted.
They (allegedly by me) broke the law in this country, though it's not as major an offence as the US will charge them with. James Bond would just come over and shoot them. You can't hide behind the internet. Mind you, you could put your own house in order. But it's probably a Constitutional Right to make money.
how about a guy from Texas coming to Portugal, he then proceeds to kill 200 people. question: does he go to Texas to be trialled and then fried or he is trialled in Portugal and gets 25 years max?
Tried in Portugal, because that's the jurisdiction where the crime took place. Same reason why I think this case is BS. Extradition is for when someone commits a crime in country A and then flees to country B. In this case, the person did something in country B which was a crime in A, but not B, and yet A is asking for extradition. An analogue to this would be if Iran demanded that the Netherlands extradite the cartoonists for trial in Iran for violating Iranian law by insulting the prophet. What they did was clearly a violation of Iranian law, but because the offense was commited in the Netherlands and is not a crime there would be no basis for extradition. Unfortunatly, every time the US grunts, the UK bends over and spreads em.
If you read the link I posted you'd find this was in accordance with the UN Convention, not the US. If drug trafficking is to be tackled effectively, then countries need to work together. The accused did send precursor chemicals to Americans; had they sent the same chemicals to UK customers who then used them to make crystal meth, in circumstances which would arouse suspicion in someone of average intelligence, they'd have committed a crime here. Some parties claim US/UK extradition is too one-sided in America's favour; the response in the Lords was that it used to be too one-sided in the UK's favour, things have been balanced up. An offence can be committed on a foreign country's soil without the perpetrator being there. I can post you a bomb, send you some poisoned cookies. Who do you think should try me?
This is angering to me, why would we (USA) care bout this so much, a while back the DEA had a sting op, and caught some guys selling steroids round the world and to USA. none of our business though, we're in a war already. this is annoying to me, and showing everyone how arrogant we are and trying to "conquer". we should mind our own business. IMO.
Hmm your sentence doesn´t seem to make much sense. Here is what I read from it ¨I don´t like the war in Iraq. The DEA has found some guy selling steroids. If the US prosecutes someone selling chemicals to make meth we are trying to ¨conquer¨ the world. The US should be isolationist.¨ Now since only 1 of those points is actually relevant to the topic, I´ll respond to that one. The US is just asking that people who selling illegal drug making materials to the US to be subject to US laws. If you want to sell to US consumers than you have to play by American laws. The same holds true for American people selling to the UK, Denmark, France, etc. It´s really not that complicated or controversial, if you sell your product in a country you have to abide by that country´s laws.
The USA State system means some things are legal in one State but not in another; however, the less petty offences are illegal everywhere. Let's hope an international society can work on similar lines.
yep.... and you would be out 12 years latter for good behaver.... ow... and this would be like 7 years after you committed the crime before you could go to trial... the system is stuffed to the ears....
