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Leon returns after serving time in US for stealing college plane

The Thunder Bay man who stole a college airplane and flew it into the U.S. returned to Canada Friday.
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Adam Leon, 33.
The Thunder Bay man who stole a college airplane and flew it into the U.S. returned to Canada Friday.

Officials with the Thunder Bay Police Service confirmed Monday that Adam Dylan Leon, 33, was taken into custody by the Niagara Regional Police Service after he crossed the border into the country from Fort Erie, Ont.

Leon stole a Confederation College plane and went on an unauthorized flight over three U.S. states on April 6, 2009. He pleaded guilty in an American courtroom to interstate transportation of a stolen aircraft and illegal entry, and was sentenced to two years in jail for those crimes in August 2009.  

He learned in December 2010 that he would be released from prison and sent back to Canada, where there were outstanding warrants for his arrest because of the laws broken in this country as a result of the plane theft.

Leon will now be sent back to Thunder Bay with the assistance of the RCMP. He is expected to be back in the city on Tuesday, and will appear via video court on Wednesday.

The stolen plane led to international attention in 2009. Major news networks, including CNN, had live coverage of the incident, and major newspapers across the globe followed some of the legal aftermath.

American courts heard how Leon had suffered from depression when he took the plane.





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