KINGSTON – A senior United States official says Washington has no plans to reverse the extradition request for Jamaican Christopher “Dudus” Coke on drugs and gun related charges.

“As of now, we have no intent to remove the request. We believe we have sound grounds to make the request, we wouldn’t have put it forward without it. We do our due diligence quite well before we take any measures of that type,” the U.S. State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central America and the Caribbean, Julissa Reynoso told a news conference here.

“We are working with the government. Extradition is an issue of utmost importance to our judicial system and to our domestic and international policies. This individual is considered to be a person of very high interest and we are actively engaged with the government of Jamaica to make this happen as soon as possible,” she said.

Last August, U.S. prosecutors said they wanted the Jamaican government to hand over Coke over to them to face gun and drug-running charges. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

“We consider this individual to be a person of very high interest,” Reynoso said.

The Jamaica government, however, has stalled signing the order, requesting additional information on the case against Coke, 40, a well known supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Reynoso said that the issue of Coke’s extradition and other topics of national importance had been discussed with Foreign Affairs Minister Kenneth Baugh on Tuesday.

She, however, did not disclose the details of talks, indicating however that the delay in extraditing Coke has not affected the relationship between the two countries.

“We are actively engaged in having this thing resolved, but it is not the heart and soul of our relationship,” she said. (CMC)