Judge Dora Irizarry yesterday ruled that confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan will now be sentenced on October 16 in her New York court.

Initially Judge Irizarry had set Khan’s sentencing date for November 6 but his lawyers had objected to this date and had asked for an earlier one.

Khan’s lawyers had written the court earlier this month asking for the sentencing date to be brought forward. In a short letter, prosecutor Benton Campbell in response had said there was no objection, as neither party raised any objections to the pre-sentence investigation report. He had suggested that the date be brought forward to September 14 or any date thereafter.

However, the judge in her ruling said because of the court’s schedule the sentencing date could not be brought forward to September.
According to the correspondence signed by attorney Diarmuid White and dated August 5, 2009, Khan had requested that the November 6 scheduled hearing be advanced to a date in September convenient to the court.

Khan has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and witness tampering charges, in addition to a gun charge.
He was charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the US over a five-year period, from January 2001 to March 2006. The US government said that he was the leader of a cocaine trafficking organisation based in Georgetown.

It also asserted that he was able to import huge amounts of cocaine into Guyana, and then oversee exportation to the US and elsewhere. The US government had charged that a significant amount of the cocaine distributed by Khan went to the Eastern District of New York for further distribution.

As an example, it cited a Guyanese drug trafficking organisation based in Queens, New York, which it said was supplied by Khan. The Queens organisation was said to have distributed hundreds of kilos of cocaine in a two-month period during the spring of 2003.