The question of whether Johnny Boone will be brought back to the United States to face federal drug charges has been answered.
Boone, 73, who’s been in custody in Canada since December 2016, will be deported. The Montreal Gazette reported that a date for his return to the United States has not been set.
According to a spokesperson with the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, Boone was present via videoconferencing during his admissibility hearing and detention review on Jan. 26. During Boone’s hearing, Dianne Tordorf, a member of the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, ruled Boone should be deported. Todorf based her ruling on the grounds of serious criminality under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
During his detention review, it was ordered he would remain in custody because he is a danger to the public, as well as being a flight risk.
The Gazette reported Boone disagreed with the decision during his hearing.
“I’d like to be considered to be not a danger to the public,” Boone said. “I don’t have any public endangerment things that I’ve ever done.”
According to the Gazette, Boone’s attorney, Tony Jedid, suggested Boone may have been rehabilitated.
“(The conviction) is dated 1988, and we’re in 2017,” Jedid said. “His personality could be changed.”
Boone spent more than a decade in prison after he was convicted in the 1980s of running a marijuana ring in several states including Minnesota, Kentucky and Kansas. The operation was dubbed the “Cornbread Mafia.” It had 29 farms in its heyday. In 1987, Boone and 69 other Kentuckians were accused of growing 182 tons of marijuana. He was charged again 2008 after a federal raid of his Springfield farm. Authorities seized 2,400 marijuana plants and weapons. Boone ran.
The Gazette also reported Boone had been living in Canada under the alias Dennis Ross and had someone help him avoid authorities.
The CBSA’s website says detention reviews are given within 48 hours of arrest, seven days after the first review and every 30 days after that. Because of those guidelines, another detention review was set for Feb. 21 at 1:30 p.m.
Once back in the United States, Boone faces federal charges.
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