The Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix today said that a full probe will be launched of how fugitive drug trafficker Barry Dataram and his wife managed to obtain fake Guyana passports. It was the latest embarrassment for the government from the Dataram case following his escape from Guyana just days before he was convicted of drug trafficking.
Dataram and his wife were captured yesterday in Suriname and were returned to Guyana today.
The episode is further embarrassing as President David Granger had said that the fugitive had not been travelling on a Guyana Passport.
A statement from the Minister of Citizenship follows:
Minister of Citizenship, Mr. Winston Felix has said that a full investigation has been launched to determine the circumstances under which convicted drug lord Mr. Barry Dataram and his reputed wife, Ms. Anjanie Boodnarine were issued fake passports and that those culpable will face the harshest possible action.
According to reports, Mr. Dataram and Ms. Boodnaraine were arrested in Suriname on Friday and handed over to Guyanese authorities. The fake passports, which were found in their possession, bore the names David Persaud and Christine Persaud with the year of issue being 2013 and 2016 respectively.
Minister Felix said that the passports are now in the possession of the police and that the investigation, which has been launched will seek to determine the circumstances under which the passports were issued, who and what documents were involved in their preparation and the method of the husband and wife’s departure from Guyana. The Ministry of Citizenship, which has responsibility for immigration services, inherited a number of challenges related to the integrity of systems when the new administration took office in May 2015 and have been working to correct these issues.
Mr. Dataram and his wife were, along with two others, charged with possession of 129.23kg of cocaine at his home for the purpose of trafficking on April 16, 2015. On September 27, 2016, Mr. Dataram was convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment while Ms. Boodnaraine and the two other co-defendants were acquitted. Mr. Dataram was also fined $164, 286,000 for possession of cocaine.
