ALLEGED DRUG LORD THREATENS AMERICANS

Crime: Washington warns that henchmen of Caribbean narcotics figure may
begin random killings if he is extradited to U.S.

WASHINGTON--A former U.S. government informant who dropped out of the
federal witness protection program and allegedly became a Caribbean drug
lord has threatened to order the random slayings of Americans on the tiny
island of St. Kitts if Washington succeeds in an effort to extradite him,
the Clinton administration said Thursday.

"We consider the threat to be real, and we want to let the American
citizens there know what the dangers are," State Department spokesman James
P. Rubin said. He said the department learned that the fugitive threatened
to have Americans studying at Ross Veterinary University in St. Kitts killed.

Rubin said the threat was made by Charles "Little Nut" Miller, a St. Kitts
businessman who has been indicted in south Florida on drug-trafficking
charges. U.S. prosecutors, who used Miller as a star witness in an
unrelated drug case, have been trying to extradite him from St. Kitts since
1996.

Rubin did not disclose how officials learned of the threat. Sources in the
Caribbean said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration alerted Washington
to the threat.

Federal court records in Florida show that the St. Kitts native is a former
political enforcer in Jamaica who--as a witness for the prosecution--helped
the U.S. Justice Department send two Miami gang members to prison for life.
As a federally protected witness, he changed his name from Cecil Connor to
Charles Miller.

Now, the administration alleges that Miller, behind the facade of a
soft-drink and chicken business, has turned the nation of St. Kitts and
Nevis into a major transshipment point for South American cocaine bound for
the U.S. Washington has been trying for two years to bring him to the U.S.
for trial.

Rubin said State Department security personnel have visited the Ross
Veterinary University campus to warn students and faculty members of
Miller's threat. He said there are about 250 American students and 50
American faculty members at the university.

According to Rubin, Miller said the slayings, presumably to be carried out
by his henchmen, would begin only if he was extradited. But Rubin said the
administration decided to issue the warning now, even though he
acknowledged that "extradition is not imminent."

Rubin said the U.S. government is unable to provide personal security to
students, faculty and other Americans on the island. But he said the
administration determined that the threat is credible enough to require
warning the Americans.

Although Miller, 37, has admitted a variety of crimes both in court
testimony and in recent interviews, he has denied shipping drugs to the
United States. In an extradition hearing in August 1996, Miller's lawyers
argued that the United States was a bully that considered its laws to be
more important than the statutes of St. Kitts and Nevis. A St. Kitts
magistrate ruled against extradition; the decision now is on appeal.

In St. Kitts, Miller has also been cleared of charges of drug dealing,
jury-tampering and 1994 charges of killing the son of a former deputy prime
minister.

In 1989, Connor, as Miller was then known, admitted in court that he worked
for what he called "the underworld section" of Jamaica's Labor Party.
Later, he said, he came to the United States, becoming a member of a
Jamaican drug gang.

Times staff writer Mark Fineman in Miami contributed to this story.

Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski