Des Plaines man on the run for more than 12 years back in custody

A Des Plaines man on the lam for a dozen years on drug trafficking charges is back in local custody.

U.S. Marshals returned Delroy McGowan, 44, to Chicago for a court appearance Wednesday after he was arrested in April 2016 in Canada.

McGowan, who previously lived in the 9300 block of Golf Road in Des Plaines, was arrested in 2001 by the Chicago Police Department's Postal Interdiction Team and charged with drug-related offenses, court records show.

McGowan failed to appear in court and was later convicted in absentia in 2004.

A confidential informant told FBI investigators that McGowan went to Florida after being released on bond in Illinois. Authorities told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News that McGowan became a citizen of Jamaica before allegedly entering Canada under a false name. A story featuring McGowan as a most-wanted fugitive in 2014 generated information leading to his arrest, the news outlet reported.

McGowan is now charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for drug trafficking. He is being held in DuPage County, where his case was assigned in 2001 after he was charged by the Illinois statewide grand jury bureau.