DETROIT – A Canadian man on Homeland Security’s Most Wanted list has been found guilty in a Detroit courtroom of trafficking drugs.
According to authorities, 43-year-old Khaophone Sychantha has a history of drug crimes dating back more than 20 years. The investigation into Sychantha began in 2005 and led to a 2013 indictment that charged him with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, ecstasy, BZP, and marijuana between 2003 and 2011.
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He was also charged with three counts of possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and ecstasy.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement described Sychantha as the leader of a drug trafficking ring that supplied millions of pills to distributors in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia and New York.
After being charged in Detroit in 2013, Sychantha was reportedly arrested and charged in Canada three separate times. After fleeing house arrest in Canada in 2014, Homeland Security added him to its 10 Most Wanted List and offered a $25,000 reward.
Sychantha was arrested in Montreal in 2017 for reportedly assaulting a police officer after a chase.
After being extradited to Detroit, a federal jury found him guilty of multiple drug trafficking-related crimes. According to authorities, Sychantha led an organization that directed several couriers to transport hundreds of thousands of pills and tens of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds across the United States-Canada border over eight years.
Sychantha is facing the possibility of life in prison. He will remain in the custody of U.S. Marshals until his sentencing on Feb. 19.
