Top 10 illegal immigrant fugitive busted by Boston agents

One of the nation’s Top 10 most wanted illegal immigrants was busted by Boston ICE agents as the rush of migrants into the country hits a crisis level along the southern border.

Drug trafficker Friendly Grandoit, 42, of Haiti, was arrested by Boston-based immigration agents and now faces up to 20 years in jail, a $250,000 fine and deportation, the Herald learned Thursday.

“The men and women of ERO Boston can be very proud of this arrest,” said Todd Lyons, Enforcement and Removal Operations field director. “ERO remains committed to apprehending dangerous criminals who continue to pose a real threat to public safety.”

Grandoit was deported to Haiti in 2008 after completing a three-year sentence for drug trafficking in Middlesex County, authorities said. He was convicted of selling oxycontin, fentanyl and cocaine, officials said.

He came back and was arrested in 2019 in Woburn for cocaine distribution, identity fraud and operating with a suspended license, records state. He posted bail in 2020, without Immigration and Customs Enforcement being alerted. He was arrested again on March 19.

The manhunt for Grandoit resulted in a black jogger being questioned by ICE agents this past October in Boston in a case of mistaken identity, a law enforcement official told the Herald. The jogger recorded the encounter along the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury.

This time, ICE agents got their fugitive.

Others on the Top 10 list of illegal immigrants previously deported includes:

• A 48-year-old Mexican man sentenced to life in prison for homicide. He was last seen in Houston.
• A 23-year-old Mexican man wanted for kidnapping. He’s possibly in Illinois.
• A 28-year-old from Mexico convicted of sexually assaulting a minor. He was last seen in New Jersey.
• A 34-year-old native of Guatemala arrested for filming a child in a sex act. He was also last seen in New Jersey.
• A 29-year-old originally from Mexico wanted for murder.
• Two Central American men last seen in California busted for manslaughter.
• Captured: A native of Guatemala convicted of rape.
• Captured: A 31-year-old from Turkey jailed once for burglary.

In its year-end report released in January, ICE said illegal immigrants arrested in 2020 had an average of four criminal convictions or pending criminal charges each. There are about about 10.5 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

ICE enforcement has been clipped under the Biden administration.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39hcbCX