Regardless of who you are, once caught with narcotics you will be charged and placed before the court, Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) James Singh said last Friday, but stressed that the unit could not make arrests solely on hearsay.
Singh was responding to queries from this newspaper as to why the so-called big fishes were not being arrested and prosecuted; he had just had made a presentation at the launching of the 2016-2020 National Drug Strategy Master Plan.
In response, he said that the terms “big fish” and “drug lord” were coined in the press. He said that anyone who was arrested with narcotics would face the court “irrespective of who they are”.
“So [Barry] Dataram…, whether he is a big fish, a drug lord or whatever, he was a person who was caught with drugs and we applied the law to him.” he stressed.
When it was indicated that the newspaper was referring to the major traffickers or the ones at the top of the scale, Singh said, “At the end of the day, they can’t be arrested based on hearsay. There are a number of persons who are suspected to be involved in narcotics and there are ongoing investigations… One of the biggest problems we have is that persons may say that this person is a drug trafficker, but are they coming to give the evidence? No.”
He said that this is where witness protection comes in. “It’s one thing to say… Unfortunately we can’t prosecute on hearsay. So we have to make sure we have the right evidence.”
Singh said that given the challenges experienced, CANU works along with agencies such as SOCU and international partners to help fill gaps.
During his presentation, Singh made mention of Dataram who was described as the unit’s success.
“It took a long time in the making from the time when the person was arrested to actually convicted and even when he was convicted we had to look for him again because he chose to breach our immigration laws by leaving the country,” he said.
Pointing out one “can run but can’t hide,” Singh noted that now Dataram is serving a lengthy sentence in Guyana, which is seen as “a success”.
Continuing, he said, “Many people would say that we haven’t successfully prosecuted any drug traffickers or we don’t catch the big fish[es]. We don’t differentiate but the fact that this person has been somewhat of a celebrity, sends a strong message that regardless of who you are once you are caught you will be successfully prosecuted.”
In September, Dataram was sentenced in absentia to 60 months in jail for trafficking in narcotics. He, his reputed wife Anjanie Boodnarine, Kevin Charran and Trevor Gouveia were before Magistrate Judy Latchman charged with the possession of 129.230 kilogrammes of cocaine (equivalent to 284 pounds) that were found on April 16, 2015 at the Lot 661 Silver Dam, Fourth Avenue, Diamond Housing Scheme house said to be owned by Dataram. He was also fined $164 million while his three co-accused were found not guilty. At the time the verdict and sentence were handed down, he and Boodnarine were absent from court. It was later established that the duo travelled to Suriname illegally. They were eventually found in a house in Paramaribo by Suriname police officials and returned to Guyana.
They both had forged passports, which, though legally issued to other persons, had been tampered with to indicate that the travel documents belonged to them.
They were arraigned in court on charges based on the forged travel documents, fleeing the jurisdiction and leaving the country illegally. Dataram was sentenced to a total of eight and a half years in prison after pleading guilty, while Boodnarine denied the charges and was remanded to prison.
Dataram is viewed by many as a major player in the local drug trafficking circle.
