Self-confessed drug trafficker Barry Dataram was late last month sentenced to time served on one count of a drug indictment he faced in a US court by Judge Edward R. Korman who also ordered a three-year supervised release.
The matter came to an end just over a year after he was held by United States authorities after serving jail time here and travelling to the country he fought extradition to many years ago.
At the time of his sentencing, Dataram was on US$500,000 bail and was initially confined to his home but court documents later revealed that he had a job and even sought more hours to be on the job through a letter to the court.
According to court records, Dataram’s matter concluded on May 29th in the New York Eastern District Court where the other counts of his indictment were dismissed based on an application by the government.
Interestingly, his sentencing memorandum was sealed and most of the information in his indictment was redacted with even the conditions in his initial release for bail being hidden from the public eyes.
Dataram was facing a five-count indictment that accused him of conspiring to import at least 150 kilogrammes of a substance containing cocaine, according to documents seen by this newspaper
Dataram was remanded to prison on January 27, 2023 by Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom when he made his first appearance. 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. The indictment was sealed and ordered unsealed the same day Datram, a US citizen, attempted to enter the country.
The first allegation against him stated that between February 2001 and Decem-ber 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 had the same dates and accused 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 stated that between April 2003 and June 2003 Dataram knowingly attempted to import another five or more kilogrammes of cocaine into the US.
The other two counts had been redacted from the indictment.
In October 2016, days after being handed over by the Suriname police to Guyanese law enforcement after 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.
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.
