Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. NICARAGUA HOLDS CANADIAN ON MARIJUANA CHARGES MANAGUA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Nicaragua has jailed a Canadian man on charges that he used his commercial hemp business as a front for an illegal marijuana farm, a prosecutor said on Thursday. Paul Thomas Wylie, 45, of Burlington, Ontario, was awaiting trial in Managua on charges of planting 100 hectares of marijuana, said Maria Alicia Duarte, a prosecutor working for Nicaragua's attorney general. Criminal Judge Orieta Benavides also issued warrants for six other Canadian shareholders in the business, Hemp Agro International, who live outside Nicaragua, as well as a Nicaraguan who lives in the United States. The judge may consider seeking extradition of those seven, although the attorney general's office will not seek such an order until establishing more concrete evidence, Duarte said. Hemp Agro International was licensed by the Nicaraguan government to import seeds for industrial hemp, which is used to make products such as rope and textiles and is legal in Canada. But Nicaraguan authorities charge the level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the plants exceeded legal levels, qualifying it as an illegal substance. Nicaraguan National Police burned the crop at Hemp Agro's farm on Managua's outskirts late last month. The case has generated daily headlines in Nicaragua, as Agriculture Ministry and other government officials were implicated for their role in approving the operation. Benavides found administrative failings but no criminal activity in the government's role in the case. But the judge left open the possibility of naming additional defendants in the future. - --- MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry