Canadian officials send escapee to Maine

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – A convicted killer and three-time escaped convict who was among the nation’s most wanted criminals after more than a year on the lam has been deported to the United States from Canada.

Richard McNair, 48, was turned over to U.S. marshals at the border Thursday at Houlton, Maine, said Jennifer Morrison, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency. She said she didn’t know where he was taken.

McNair was held Thursday night in Maine. Denise Lord, Maine’s associate corrections commissioner, said she was not aware of McNair being in a state facility.

McNair was among the nation’s 15 most wanted fugitives when he was captured Oct. 25 in Campbellton, New Brunswick. McNair had smuggled himself out of federal prison in Louisiana in a pile of mailbags that were shrink-wrapped on a pallet April 5, 2006.

It was the third escape attempt for McNair, a former military police officer and police informant who was tackled and arrested by a rookie with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after an attempted traffic stop about 100 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border.