ST. KITTS SUSPECT TAKEN TO U.S.

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A St. Kitts man wanted in Florida on
cocaine smuggling charges has been taken to the United States, ending
U.S. officials' long fight for his extradition, Prime Minister Denzil
Douglas said Saturday.

U.S. officials had been fighting since 1996 for St. Kitts and Nevis, a
small island country southeast of Puerto Rico, to extradite Charles
``Little Nut'' Miller. Miller waived his rights to fight extradition
while in court Thursday on local firearms and drug charges, and U.S.
officials took him on a plane Saturday morning, Douglas said.

Miller has been turned over to the U.S. Customs Service, the agency
said Saturday. It said Miller had been sought following a joint
investigtion by the Customers Service and the Drug Enforcement
Administration.''

Formerly known as Cecil Connor, Miller was an accused member of a
Jamaican-dominated gang known for trafficking tons of cocaine in the
1980s. Authorities blame the gang for some 1,400 murders in Miami, Los
Angeles, New York and in several states.

Miller is wanted on a 1995 indictment charging him with smuggling more
than 1,000 pounds of cocaine. A St. Kitts court had twice blocked his
extradition.

His case took a high profile in 1998 when U.S. officials accused him
of threatening to kill U.S. students at St. Kitts' Ross University if
he was ordered extradited.

About two weeks ago, employees of the St. Kitts newspaper The Observer
said Miller came into their office with a gun to complain about news
coverage of the extradition dispute.