Jamaican National Sentenced for Illegal Reentry after Fleeing Before Sentencing

BOSTON – A Jamaican national who was on the lam for 10 months was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for illegally reentering the United States after being deported. 

Anthony Durrant, 52, a Jamaican national who previously resided in Dorchester, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Durrant will face deportation upon completion of his sentence.  

On May 2018, Durrant pleaded guilty to one count of illegal reentry of a deported alien, and sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 13, 2018 in federal court in Boston.  At that time, Durrant was detained in state custody on unrelated state charges. On July 3, 2018, Durrant was released from state custody after the state charges were dismissed, despite that fact that two federal detainers had been lodged. Durrant subsequently failed to appear for his sentencing hearing in federal court and was apprehended approximately 10 months later – on July 9, 2019, in California, under an alias.  

Durrant was sentenced today for illegally reentering the United States. In January 1998, Durrant illegally entered the U.S. as a stowaway on a cargo ship from Jamaica. After a state conviction for drug offenses, Durrant was deported in July 2012. At some point thereafter, Durrant reentered the U.S., and was then charged in state court in November 2017 with an unrelated offense. At that time, law enforcement officers in Boston determined Durrant to be illegally present in the United States.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Marcos D. Charles, Acting Field Office Director, Boston, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations; and John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal for District of Massachusetts, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus of Lelling’s Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.