NICARAGUA HOLDS CANADIAN ON MARIJUANA CHARGES

MANAGUA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Nicaragua has jailed a Canadian man on
charges that he used his commercial hemp business as a front for an
illegal marijuana farm, a prosecutor said on Thursday.

Paul Thomas Wylie, 45, of Burlington, Ontario, was awaiting trial in
Managua on charges of planting 100 hectares of marijuana, said Maria
Alicia Duarte, a prosecutor working for Nicaragua's attorney general.

Criminal Judge Orieta Benavides also issued warrants for six other
Canadian shareholders in the business, Hemp Agro International, who
live outside Nicaragua, as well as a Nicaraguan who lives in the
United States.

The judge may consider seeking extradition of those seven, although
the attorney general's office will not seek such an order until
establishing more concrete evidence, Duarte said.

Hemp Agro International was licensed by the Nicaraguan government to
import seeds for industrial hemp, which is used to make products such
as rope and textiles and is legal in Canada.

But Nicaraguan authorities charge the level of tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) in the plants exceeded legal levels, qualifying it as an illegal
substance. Nicaraguan National Police burned the crop at Hemp Agro's
farm on Managua's outskirts late last month.

The case has generated daily headlines in Nicaragua, as Agriculture
Ministry and other government officials were implicated for their role
in approving the operation.

Benavides found administrative failings but no criminal activity in
the government's role in the case. But the judge left open the
possibility of naming additional defendants in the future.