‘Big Head’ in plea deal with US prosecutors

Oct 30, 2020 News

A plea deal: Shervington Lovell

Kaieteur News – Guyanese embattled hotelier, Shervington ‘Big Head’ Lovell, has asked US prosecutors for a plea deal, according to court documents.
On Wednesday, the New York Court, presided by Judge, Paul G. Gardephe, heard the plea deal request.
It will be recalled that the businessman, along with other persons, Steven Antonius and Ricardo Ramirez, otherwise called Argemiro Zapato-Castro, were arrested at the Norman Manley International Airport, Jamaica on October 25th, 2018. They were all found with cash that were seized by the Jamaican authorities.
Lovell has links to Hotel Tower as well as other hotels in Berbice.
The men were arrested when a police party from the Jamaican Fugitive Apprehension Team conducted special operations at the Norman Manley International Airport pursuant to a request from the United States Government and an arrest warrant pursuant to the Extradition Act of 1991.
Lovell, Antonius and Ramirez, Guyanese, Surinamese and Columbian nationals respectively, were located and arrested and their persons and properties searched.
During the search, the cash was found and seized by the police under the POCA on the suspicion that it had derived from unlawful conduct.
All three men indicated that the cash was obtained from legitimate businesses to include gold mining and a car wash, but neither of them was able to verify the existence of the said businesses.
FID investigated and found that none of the alleged businesses existed and that none of the men were found to possess licenses for the operation of a gold mining business. The men were extradited to the US in late 2018.
They are being accused of conspiring to ship hundreds of kilos of cocaine to Europe.
US prosecutors told the NY court this week, in a letter to the judge, that they want the exclusion of time under the Speedy Trial Act until the anticipated plea hearing.
“As the Court is aware, the defendant, Shervington Lovell, has indicated his intention to enter a plea agreement between the parties and plead guilty before Your Honor. The Court has previously scheduled the plea hearing for October 28, 2020, but the defendant required an adjournment to sign copies of the plea agreement and the consent to remote proceedings form. The parties now anticipate the plea hearing will be rescheduled to a date in approximately two weeks.”
The arrest of Lovell had sent shockwaves in Guyana, as he is well-known in the local business world.

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