The tiny South American country of Guyana extradited a criminal for the first time ever — and now he’s back in Queens to stand trial for a shooting, according to cops.
Troy Thomas, 33, finally saw the inside of a New York jail cell after fleeing to Guyana to escape a murder rap eight years ago.
Thomas is accused of gunning down Frank Keith in 2011 outside a house party in South Ozone Park, cops said. He later died at New York Hospital Queens.
The two were fighting over something “nonsensical” when Thomas allegedly went to his car, grabbed a gun and shot Keith at point-blank range, cops said. Keith later died at New York Hospital Queens.
Thomas fled to Canada by car and, within a couple of days, he was on a plane with a family member’s passport heading to Guyana — and out of reach of city police.
Cops were left wondering: “How do we go about getting this perp with no extradition?” Lt. Richard Rudolph recalled Thursday.
Cops didn’t catch a break in the case until July of 2016 when the two countries struck a diplomatic deal.
Rudolph said an officer had read about the development and flagged to his superiors.
“The District Attorney was very intrigued and got in touch with State Department,” Rudolph said.
Guyana police picked up Thomas last year, once the government there gave them the green light, but he didn’t exhaust his extradition appeals until this week, according to embassy officials.
His transfer to the US set a new precedent for Guyana, which has not previously extradited to the US, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
It took a year of negotiations between the country’s government and the US Embassy, officials said.
“The Government of Guyana’s actions over the past year clearly indicate its dedication to law and order and established norms of international criminal justice – Guyana is moving in the right direction,” Ambassador Sarah Lynch said in a statement.
The tattoo-covered Guyana native said nothing Thursday afternoon as cops dragged him in front of a judge in Queens.
The country, which is about the size of Oregon and borders Venezuela and Brazil, has a population of less than 800,000.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts