Labour Councillor Sentenced Over Global Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

A Labour Councillor from Doncaster who resigned after being arrested by anti-drug trafficking police, has now been sentenced to 'time served'.

28-year-old Daniel Barwell, who was suspended by the Labour Party, was charged in February 2022 for what police confirmed as "the distribution of a controlled drug on a warrant issued at the request of the United States authorities".

It is now confirmed that the drug was magic mushrooms, with a note prepared ahead of Barwell's sentencing hearing saying the defendant acted as a 're-shipper' for almost five years "for a conspiracy that flourished on the dark web".

The document said the conspiracy was carried out with 'military precision', with liquid and dry forms of the drug sold to customers throughout the US and Europe.

His US lawyer, Steven Nolder, said the defendant 'withdrew from the conspiracy' shortly after he was elected to the council, with his arrest leading to his resignation and his contract as a hospital administrator being terminated.

An arrest warrant had been issued by US officials who sought to have Barwell extradited, but was rescinded upon Barwell's lawyers referencing the case of US citizen Anne Sacoolas. Sacoolas, who struck and killed teenager Harry Dunn in England in a hit and run incident, hid behind her diplomat husband before being sentenced remotely for careless driving. Lawyers successfully argued that her being sentenced remotely "undermined any suggestion that the same could not be done the other way round in this case".

Barwell's case was heard earlier via videolink at a court in Ohio, with court documents suggesting he was detained in London for nine months before being released on an 'extradition bond' to live with his mother.

Barwell was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, meaning he will serve no additional time behind bars.