Defendants in JFK terror plot head to U.S.

(CNN) -- Three men accused last year of a plot to bomb New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport were headed to the United States late Tuesday after their fight against extradition from Trinidad and Tobago was rejected by an appeals court there, Trinidad and U.S. officials said.

Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur are accused of a plot to blow up fuel lines and tanks at the airport. They were jailed in Trinidad and Tobago while a fourth defendant, Russel DeFreitas, already has pleaded innocent in New York.

A Trinidad and Tobago judge ordered the three to be extradited in February, but it was delayed until this week when the appeals judge rejected their appeal on a technicality, said David West, an attorney in the office of the Trinidad and Tobago Attorney General.

The appeals judge ruled the defendants filed their arguments "out of time," and their lawyers had not filed papers to explain why so "the judge had no choice but to strike out their appeal," West said.

West said the men were placed on an FBI plane at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The FBI's spokesman in Miami confirmed that the three defendants were put on a flight to the United States on Tuesday evening.

Their lawyers had earlier argued that Trinidad and Tobago law does not allow for extradition on terrorism conspiracy charges.

U.S. prosecutors say the men not only plotted but carried out actual actions toward bombing the airport. Some of their conversations were secretly taped by an informant, according to court documents filed by the government.

A 40-mile aviation fuel pipeline runs from a fuel tank farm at JFK through Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens, according to New York Police.

Ibrahim is from Trinidad. Nur and Kadir are from Guyana. The three, who all have maintained their innocence, were being held at a maximum security prison in Trinidad.

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