Reptile dealer deported to face charges in U.S.

He fought as vigorously as he could, taking his case as far as the Court of Appeals but in the end U.S. citizen Tommy Edward Crutchfield lost the battle and today found himself winging his way back to Miami. According to a release from the Solicitor General’s Office, Crutchfield was deported from Belize this afternoon after a judge declined his application for a stay of execution of a deportation order issued against him by Foreign Affairs Minister Dean Barrow. He was arrested in February of this year, following a request from the U.S. Embassy for assistance in getting Crutchfield back to the States to face charges of smuggling exotic reptiles into the U.S. Crutchfield’s application for a writ of habeas corpus was dismissed in May by Justice George Meerabux. A subsequent application for a stay of the expulsion order was thrown out last week by Justice Manuel Sosa.