Is there are any performance benefits from defragmenting a usb drive?

"Fragmentation happens to a hard disk over time as you save, change, or delete files." http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-is-disk-defragmentation

I understand with harddisks there is a moving disc that has to spin and seek for files. When the files are fragmented it has to look at several different locations on the disk thus taking much more time compared to if all the files were in one similar location on the disk.

Flash disks don't having moving parts, so the gains from defragmenting should be minimul correct?

So we can agree USB drives can become fragmented... But is there ANY* / realworld performance benefits from defragmenting them?

Yes, there is a benefit, but oh-so-very-slightly. And it greatly depends on your Flash Disk Controller's fetching strategy.

The drawback, however is immense: Since Flash memory 'wears out' with each writing, you shorten the life of your Flash Disk.