PORT-OF-SPAIN -- A participant in a 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad who is wanted in the United States on gun charges was taken back into custody after he was briefly released from jail Wednesday, officials said.

About 15 police and soldiers blocked the street while waiting for Clive Lancelot Small, 69, to be released from the Port-of-Spain Prison in the capital. Immediately after he walked out, police led him to a waiting car as members of the black Muslim group that attempted the coup chanted ''God is Great!'' in Arabic. It was not clear when he would appear in court.

Small, also known as Olive Small or Olive Enyahooma-El, was detained last month after the United States requested his extradition. In May 2002, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted him on charges of attempting to smuggle 60 AK-47 rifles, 10 submachine guns and 10 machine gun silencers from South Florida into Trinidad in 2001.

He was ordered held without bail pending an extradition hearing.