PRESIDENT David Granger is urging members of the local law-enforcement community to work with their counterparts in neighbouring countries and to use every possible legitimate avenue to locate and transport convicted drug lord, Barry Dataram, back to Guyana.According to a release from the Ministry of the Presidency, President Granger said that while he will not lay blame at the feet of any agency or individual, Dataram’s flight from Guyana was something which could have been avoided.

In the recording of the Ministry of the Presidency’s weekly television programme, The Public Interest yesterday, President Granger told journalists that information suggests that Dataram is not a Guyanese and might have absconded using a passport not issued by the government of Guyana. The President assured the media though that the police commissioner has been asked to make every effort to locate the suspect.
“…so my information is that he is not travelling on a Guyanese passport. So after his disappearance, and we weren’t aware of his disappearance, we continued to work with our partners in the Caribbean to bring him to justice. If he is in Suriname as is suspected, the commissioner of police has been instructed to try to ascertain his whereabouts in neighbouring countries, but he is not using a Guyana passport, that much we know,” the Head of State said.
The self-confessed drug lord was found guilty of being in possession of a quantity of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking by Magistrate Judy Latchman earlier this week.
In his absence, he was sentenced to 60 months imprisonment and fined GYD$164,268,000. However, the charge was dismissed against his common-law wife, Anjanie Boodnarine, Kevin Charran and Trevor Gouveia.
Arrest warrants have been issued for Dataram and Boodnarine, who failed to turned up at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on September 20 and September 23. They have not been seen or heard from since; they were on bail pending the outcome of the case.
“Mr. Dataram is a person of interest. He is a well-known character in Guyana and I would expect that even though the judicial branch is separate, there should be a greater level of alertness on the part of the magistracy, in the judiciary, in matters like this and I don’t regard it as a failing on the part of law-enforcement agencies, but it is definitely an error which ought to have been avoided. The danger posed in having somebody who is now a convict out there, out of the jurisdiction is going to be harmful to our national interest; so I would urge the law-enforcement agencies to alert their counterparts in neighbouring states.
“Even though Mr Dataram might have a foreign passport, it might be a forged passport. I would urge all law-enforcement agencies to use every legitimate measure to bring him back into this jurisdiction so that he can serve his sentence,” the President said.
According to the release, the President observed that while more could have been done, it must be noted that the resources currently available to law-enforcement agencies are not sufficient to patrol every kilometre of the country’s borders and ports.
The release further noted however that the government is currently acquiring the equipment necessary to aid the fight against narco- trafficking and other forms of illegal activity.
“It is physically impossible to control every kilometre with our present resources. We are working on the acquisition of surveillance aircraft, we are placing mounted police in wide open areas, we are acquiring ATVs and surveillance equipment,” he said.
On April 16, 2015 at Dataram’s house located at 661 Silver Dam, Fourth Avenue, Diamond Housing Scheme, 33 parcels of cocaine 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.