The Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) yesterday afternoon arrested businessman Barry Dataram and three others in connection with over 100 kilos of cocaine along with an undisclosed sum of cash and ammunition.
Head of CANU, James Singh confirmed that Dataram, who has had several brushes with the law, was arrested at a house in Diamond, East Bank Demerara and that investigations are ongoing.
Stabroek News understands that the arrests of Dataram, his wife and two other relatives, at a Fourth Avenue, Diamond New Housing Scheme house, came after a thorough operation with local and foreign law enforcement agencies.
The drug was found packaged in a room of the 4th Avenue home and some was concealed in seafood for export. Up to press time last evening the four persons remained in custody assisting with investigations.
Dataram is no stranger to law enforcement as he has been arrested several times before and escaped the clutches of United States law enforcement after an extradition attempt failed.
He has over the past four years kept a low profile and his last arrest was in 2010 but he was released the next day without charges. Before that, he had been arrested five times since 2007 on provisional warrants for the purpose of extradition to the US where he was wanted for alleged cocaine smuggling. None of the cases brought by local police were ever successful.
It all started for Dataram when his wife and then three-year-old daughter were kidnapped by two Venezuelans in December 2007. One of the Venezuelans was subsequently shot dead in a confrontation with the police. The kidnapping was reportedly drug-related and it was shortly after these events that Dataram was first taken into police custody.
His lawyers subsequently approached the court with a habeas corpus writ but police asked for an extension to conclude their investigation into the kidnapping, which they said was drug-related.
What followed was a series of court appearances during which Dataram was twice set free and rearrested.
He was finally set free in December, 2008. After Dataram was released, the state filed an appeal against the High Court ruling, which had exposed a flaw in the extradition law.
Subsequently, government announced that it would modify the law, and it subsequently passed an amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Act 1988 to address the conflict that arose within the law regarding individuals here being extradited. The amendment also controversially included a provision which empowers the Home Affairs Minister to decide whether to extradite or not.
Dataram was rearrested in February 2010, released and then rearrested. The then Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson had refused to grant an arrest warrant for Dataram, as she had not received a request from the US government for his extradition.
His lawyers subsequently moved to the High Court and an hour before the hearing Dataram was released on $100,000 station bail.
