Canadian dies in ICE jail after being arrested for staying in country illegally

By JOE HUTCHISON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: 20:37 BST, 26 June 2025 | Updated: 22:16 BST, 26 June 2025

A Canadian immigrant has died in the custody of ICE while awaiting removal from the US. 

Johnny Noviello, 49, died on Monday afternoon while in custody in Miami, Florida. His cause of death is under investigation. 

Noviello was undergoing removal proceedings when he was found unresponsive.  Medical staff attempted to resuscitate him but he was pronounced dead shortly after. 

According to ICE, Noviello entered the US in 1988 and formally became a lawful permanent resident in 1991. 

But in 2023, he was convicted of racketeering and drug trafficking – which revoked his legal migrant status. He was meant to leave the country but didn’t, so was arrested in May as part of an ICE round-up. 

ICE said he was convicted for trafficking Oxycodone, as well the unlawful use of a two-way communication device to facilitate commission of crime. 

He was sentenced to 12 months in prison in October of 2023. Volusia County corrections data shows he was released in February of last year.

Last month ICE had arrested Noviello at a Florida probation office and issued a notice to appear and charged with removability. 

Johnny Noviello, seen here in a 2023 mugshot, died on Monday afternoon while in custody in Miami, Florida

ICE agents walk down a street during a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago

They said this was due to Noviello ‘having been convicted of a violation of (or a conspiracy or attempt to violate) any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country, relating to a controlled substance’.

An ICE statement added: ‘Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.’

They added that officials in Canada had been informed of Noviello’s death. 

According to Volusia County Corrections, he had also previously been booked into prison on charges relating to the sale of oxycodone and trafficking the drug in 2017.

Federal agents raided a used car lot in Daytona Beach in November of 2017 and said they found drugs being sold inside the business.

Noviello and his father Angelo were arrested and charged with the sale of thousands of painkillers. 

The DEA said at the time that the two had trafficked nearly 2,000 methadone, hydromorphone and morphine tablets. They also found over 11,000 oxycodone pills.

According to court records seen by the Daily Mail, the two men pleaded guilty to the charges.

According to Volusia County Corrections, he had also previously been booked into prison on charges relating to the sale of oxycodone and trafficking the drug in 2017, he is seen in his 2017 mugshot

Federal agents raided a used car lot in Daytona Beach in November of 2017 and said they found drugs being sold inside the business, Noviello is seen being arrested in 2017 here

The DEA said that buyers would walk into the business and exchange money for the pills. 

In April of this year a Chinese woman detained at the US-Mexico border died by suicide while in the custody of ICE. 

The woman, 52, had been taken into custody for overstaying a visitor visa before. She died in a facility in Yuma, Arizona. 

Also in April, Haitian woman Marie Ange Blaise, 44, died after over 10 weeks in ICE custody. 

In a statement at the time, ICE said they stopped Blaise at an airport in the Virgin Islands as she tried to return to North Carolina. They said she didn’t have a valid immigrant visa.

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Canadian dies in ICE jail after being arrested for staying in country illegally

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