Busy Signal Fled US on Drug Charge, Changed Name, now facing Extradition

Authorities say that Busy Signal is a fugitive wanted on decade-old drug conspiracy charges in the U.S. state of Minnesota.

Agents with Jamaica’s organized crime division arrested him at the international airport in the capital of Kingston. He had just arrived on a flight from London, where authorities first detained Busy Signal for allegedly traveling with false documents.

Police said Tuesday his real name is Glendale Goshia Gordon, but he was reportedly traveling with a passport that listed his name as Reanno Devon Gordon.

Gordon allegedly cut short his tour after he apparently got wind of the fact that an extradition warrant was issued for him by the United States Government. Reports state that when he got to England he was refused

BREAKING NEWS: Busy Signal Arrested on U.S. Extradition Warrant

The US has accused Gordon, who was a resident alien, of fleeing that country in 2002 before he could be sentenced on a cocaine charge in October that year.

Sources say the artiste, who got bail in March 2002, is suspected of removing an ankle bracelet used as a tracking device by US authorities to ascertain the whereabouts of a suspect on bail – and fled to Jamaica. Police yesterday said the artiste has been under surveillance for several years. He has been traveling extensively but has steered clear of the US.

Gordon is scheduled to appear in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. If he is extradited, he will be first high-profile Jamaican to be surrendered to the US authorities in the two years since former Tivoli Gardens strongman

Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke was captured and sent to New York on drug-related charges. A sentencing hearing is set to begin today for Coke,  who pleaded guilty to racketeering, conspiracy and conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering in the United States.

Busy Signal is known for the popular hits One More Night – a remake of the Phil Collins original, Jamaica Love and Nah Go A Jail Again.

MEANWHILE: Attorney-at-law Christopher Townsend was one of several people who visited Jamaican entertainer Busy Signal after he was taken into custody at the Gun Court Remand Centre yesterday afternoon.

Townsend acknowledged that he has not been retained, but said he visited the artiste “to find out what was happening and have a word with him”.

He said there was a chance he could be asked to represent the entertainer and added that the next move would be to find out from the authorities “what exactly he was being held for.”