Ex-GDF Major Clarke free despite U.S. drug conviction
RETIRED Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Major David Clarke walked free from a United States jail yesterday, after he was sentenced to time already served on a drug conviction.

The indictment against Clarke, who had been in custody for about three years, said that he, between October 2003 and April 5, 2005, his brother, Hubert Clarke alias ‘Dun Dun’ and Hubert’s girlfriend, Shelly McQune, together with others, knowingly and intentionally conspired to import more than five kilogrammes of cocaine into the U.S.

It was also alleged that, during the same period, they conspired to distribute the narcotic in the U.S.

Clarke, who appeared before a judge in Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday, was one of the main witnesses to have testified at the trial, also in the U.S., of convicted Guyanese drug lord, Shaheed Roger Khan.

But Khan, accepted a plea deal and did not have to be tried but is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence, since October 16 last.

However, Clarke, unlike Khan, who will be deported at the expiration of his sentence, can remain in the U.S.

The former Guyanese Army officer was publicly accused by President Bharrat Jagdeo, previously, of being in league with the Buxton criminals while he was stationed in the then troubled village, in charge of ‘Operation Tourniquet’, that was mounted to rid the community of criminal elements during an upsurge in local crime in the aftermath of the 2002 Mashramani jailbreak.

In 2003, Clarke, then a Captain, had his promotion blocked by President Jagdeo, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and, when he was, subsequently, sent overseas on a training course, the Head of State ordered him back here.

President Jagdeo said, after, he had been in receipt of confidential information, from persons he knew in Buxton, that Clarke was in league with the bandits there.

Earlier this year, President Jagdeo said news of Clarke’s detention in the U.S. made him feel vindicated for his actions against the latter.

President Jagdeo said, though, that he never made any disclosures about what he learnt of Clarke, because he did not want to betray the confidence of the persons who had informed him.