The indictment under which self-confessed drug trafficker Barry Dataram was held in the US has been unsealed, but was redacted to remove the names of those he allegedly conspired with to import at least 150 kilogrammes of a substance containing cocaine. The document was ordered unsealed the same day the US citizen was held as he attempted to enter the country.
Dataram, who was remanded to prison on January 27 by Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom when he made his first appearance, is facing a five-count indictment. However, according to documents seen by this newspaper, the information contained in counts four and five is hidden, along with some information in the other counts.
Dataram’s lawyers did not make a bail application and when he reappeared in court last Friday, this time before Judge Edward R Korman, it was ordered that he continue to remain in custody.
“Because the purpose of the delay is to allow discussions to take place that could eliminate the necessity for a trial and for the exchange and review of discovery material, I find that the considerations underlying the Speedy Trial Act are outweighed by the interests of justice and the time is excluded,” the judge said in his ruling.
It means that Dataram may very well throw in the proverbial towel and plead guilty as charged.
The first allegation against him states that between February 2001 and December 2003, Dataram, who is also known as “Kevin,” “Ledge” and “Fat Man,” together with others, did knowingly and intentionally conspire to import five kilogrammes or more of a substance containing cocaine into the United States.
The second count has the same dates and accuses Dataram and others of knowingly and intentionally conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilogrammes or more of a substance containing cocaine.
The third count states that between April 2003 and June 2003 Dataram knowingly attempted to import another five or more kilogrammes of cocaine into the US.
As stated above, while the drug trafficker faces two further counts these have been redacted from the indictment made public.
In October 2016, days after being handed over by the Suriname police to Guyanese law enforcement having been on the run, Dataram pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The sentence was for attempting to defeat the administration of the law to avoid the consequences, forging a passport and leaving the country without presenting himself to an immigration officer; all of which he pleaded guilty to.
Those three years were added to the five-year sentence, which had been handed down a month before, in September of 2016, in his absence for drug possession. He was also fined $164 million. The two sentences were to be served consecutively.
From 2007 to 2010, Dataram had four provisional warrants issued for his arrest, for the purpose of extraditing him to the US for cocaine smuggling offences. He had fought each one successfully.
It is unclear why, knowing that he had outstanding arrest warrants in the US, he returned there.
