Two na­tion­als of Trinidad and To­ba­go have been charged in the Unit­ed States with in­ter­na­tion­al co­caine traf­fick­ing of­fences fol­low­ing the un­seal­ing of a fed­er­al in­dict­ment.

Act­ing Unit­ed States At­tor­ney Michael M. Simp­son an­nounced that on Sep­tem­ber 19, 2025, 49-year-old Dav­eanan De­onar­ine (al­so known as “Dave”), and 48-year-old Michael Sam­son­dar (al­so known as “Don”, “Cap­tain” and “Fish­er­man”), were charged in a two-count in­dict­ment for in­ter­na­tion­al co­caine dis­tri­b­u­tion con­spir­a­cy and in­ter­na­tion­al co­caine dis­tri­b­u­tion.

The in­dict­ment al­leges of­fences un­der mul­ti­ple sec­tions of Ti­tle 21 of the Unit­ed States Code, in­clud­ing con­spir­a­cy to dis­trib­ute co­caine in­ter­na­tion­al­ly and the sub­stan­tive of­fence of in­ter­na­tion­al co­caine dis­tri­b­u­tion.

The charges arise out of a bi­lat­er­al in­ves­ti­ga­tion linked to a 2023 Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion probe that led to the seizure of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 168 kilo­grams of co­caine in­tend­ed for dis­tri­b­u­tion in the Unit­ed States. Both men were ar­rest­ed as part of that in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

If con­vict­ed, De­onar­ine and Sam­son­dar each face a manda­to­ry min­i­mum sen­tence of ten years im­pris­on­ment and up to life im­pris­on­ment. They al­so face fines of up to US$10 mil­lion, at least five years of su­per­vised re­lease fol­low­ing any term of im­pris­on­ment for each count, and a manda­to­ry spe­cial as­sess­ment fee of US$100 per count.

Simp­son re­mind­ed that the in­dict­ment rep­re­sents an al­le­ga­tion and that the de­fen­dants are pre­sumed in­no­cent un­less and un­til proven guilty be­yond a rea­son­able doubt.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­volved the Drug En­force­ment Ad­min­is­tra­tion, the Port of Spain Coun­try Of­fice in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Transna­tion­al Or­gan­ised Crime Unit, the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency, and the Spe­cial In­ves­tiga­tive Unit of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice.

The case is be­ing pros­e­cut­ed by As­sis­tant Unit­ed States At­tor­neys Lynn E. Schiff­man and An­dré Jones of the Nar­cotics Unit.