Five men wanted for allegedly conspiring to smuggle cocaine as part of an international criminal network have been extradited from Thailand to the United States.
Thai Police Gen Somyot Pumpanmuang says the two Britons, one Slovak, one Filipino and one Taiwanese were escorted by US Drug Enforcement Administration officials on a chartered flight today from Bangkok.
He says they were suspected accomplices of their alleged ringleader, 48-year-old Joseph Hunter, who was arrested in the same sting operation in September on the resort island of Phuket. Federal authorities said the former US soldier ran a murder-for-hire organization.
Hunter was expelled by Thai authorities, and charged in New York with conspiracy to kill a DEA agent in addition to the drug charges, as were two other ex-soldiers, an American and a German.
