PRISON authorities earlier this year had moved drug lord Barry Dataram from the Camp Street Prison to Mazaruni after reports had surfaced of a plot to spirit him out of that correctional facility.
Dataram, a self-confessed drug lord is currently serving a five-year sentence at the Mazaruni Prison for cocaine possession, and an additional 48 months for forgery. He was also sentenced to three years after he was found guilty of possession of ammunition.
He was found guilty of being in possession of a quantity of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking by Magistrate Judy Latchman last year September and sentenced to 60 months imprisonment and fined GYD$164,268,000. He had fled the jurisdiction prior to the sentencing, but was nabbed in neighbouring Suriname and brought back to Guyana. “Yes we had heard that a plot was hatched around him and he and some others were moved,” a senior security official told this newspaper.The Guyana Chronicle was told that Dataram was transferred sometime between February and March this year.
Shortly after he was moved there his wife Anjanie Boodnarine was charged with smuggling contraband into the Mazaruni Prison. The 21-year-old of 79 Patentia Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara on March 31, 2017 had allegedly smuggled a pack of cigarettes for Dataram. Reports were that Boodnarine was reportedly in the process of attempting to sneak in a quantity of cigarettes in a sealed packet of ‘cheese stick’ when she was caught by prison officials during a mandatory check of the contents.
On April 16, 2015 at Dataram’s house located at 661 Silver Dam, Fourth Avenue, Diamond Housing Scheme, 33 parcels of cocaine substance were found in an upstairs bathroom, 180 pieces in a blue baby tub and 92 pieces in a black garbage bag in the downstairs dining room, and 142 pieces in a freezer with shrimp in the outer yard area. The cocaine amounted to 129.230 kilograms, which is equivalent to 284 pounds.
In addition to the cocaine find, Dataram was sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined $60,000 for the illegal possession of 180 rounds of .223 ammunition on April 16, at Lot 661 Fourth Avenue, Block ‘X’ Diamond, East Bank Demerara, when he is not the holder of a firearm licence. He was charged jointly with his wife, Anjanie Boodnarine; however the case against her was discharged. The three-year sentence for Dataram will run concurrently to the 60 months jail time. Boodnarine and Dataram were caught by authorities in Suriname and handed over to the police at Springlands. The two had departed Guyana for Suriname via backtrack route at Springlands, pending the decision in their trial for the cocaine trafficking case.