BALTIMORE (CMC) – The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says it has detained a Jamaican who had been convicted in Maryland of carrying a loaded handgun.

ICE said deportation officers from Baltimore’s Criminal Apprehension Programme took the 19-year-old into custody at his residence in Hyattsville, Maryland and served him with papers ordering him to appear before an immigration judge.

“This Jamaican noncitizen blatantly ignored Maryland’s gun laws by carrying a loaded handgun in public,” said Darius Reeves, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore acting Field Office Director.

“Had we not apprehended him, he could have easily wreaked havoc on the residents of Maryland. ERO Baltimore will continue to exhaust our resources to provide safe communities for the people of Maryland,” he added.

ICE said the Jamaican legally entered the United States in May 2011 at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida and was arrested and charged with possessing a loaded firearm on February 28 this year.

On June 29, the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County in Upper Marlboro convicted the Jamaican and sentenced him to 23 months in jail followed by three years of supervised probation.