BURLINGTON, Vt. – A man known as the Godfather of Grass has been deported from Canada and will be held in a Vermont prison pending his return to Kentucky to face federal marijuana charges.
John Robert "Johnny" Boone was turned over to U.S. authorities Wednesday by Canadian officials at Highgate Springs, Vermont.
Deputy U.S. Marshal John Curtis says Boone appeared in court in Burlington and was ordered held.
The 73-year-old Boone was convicted in the 1980s in what prosecutors called the "largest domestic marijuana syndicate in American history." They said he was the head of the Cornbread Mafia, which had 29 marijuana farms in nine states.
Boone is from rural Kentucky southeast of Louisville. He has said "marijuana is sometimes one of the things that puts bread on the table."
He fled to Canada after a 2008 indictment.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
