Former US Marine to Be Extradited Over Alleged Training of Chinese Pilots

What’s New

Former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan is set to be extradited from Australia to the United States, where he faces allegations of illegally providing training to Chinese aviators.

Why It Matters

According to a 2016 indictment from the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., unsealed in late 2022, prosecutors allege that Duggan conspired to train Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, as well as potentially on other occasions, without securing the required license.

Prosecutors allege that Duggan, 55, was paid approximately 88,000 Australian dollars ($61,000) and provided international travel by a co-conspirator for services often referred to as “personal development training.”

What To Know

Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus authorized the extradition on Monday, concluding the nearly two-year effort by Boston native Duggan to avoid being sent back to the United States.

Duggan, a former U.S. Marine who served for 12 years before emigrating to Australia and renouncing his American citizenship, has been held in a maximum-security prison since his 2022 arrest at his family home in New South Wales. Duggan is a father of six.

In May, a Sydney judge approved Duggan’s extradition to the United States, leaving an appeal to Australia’s attorney general as his final attempt to avoid being sent back.

This undated photo from Saffrine Duggan shows former U.S. Marine Daniel Duggan. On December 23, 2024, Australia’s attorney general announced that Duggan would be extradited to the United States, where he faces allegations of illegally…

Saffrine Duggan via AP/Saffrine Duggan via AP

A spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Department of Australia previously told Reuters that an individual was arrested on October 21, 2022, following a request from the United States government, without offering further details. A LinkedIn profile matching his description showed Duggan served with the Marines for over a decade, between 1989 and 2002, rising to the rank of major.

Duggan said he flew the AV-8B Harrier II “jump jet” and also was a Marine Corps exchange pilot to the Spanish Navy.

On the site, Duggan listed himself as having moved to Beijing in 2014. Three years later, he became the managing director of AVIBIZ Limited, described as a “comprehensive aviation consultancy company” based in the port city of Qingdao in eastern China. AVIBIZ Limited was registered by Australian passport holder Daniel Edmund Duggan in 2017 and dissolved in 2020, according to Hong Kong company records seen by Reuters.

What People Are Saying

In a statement Monday, Australia’s Attorney General Mark Dreyfus confirmed he had approved Daniel Duggan’s extradition but did not specify when he would be transferred to the United States.

“Duggan was given the opportunity to provide representations as to why he should not be surrendered to the United States. In arriving at my decision, I took into consideration all material in front of me,” Dreyfus said in the statement.

Duggan’s wife, Saffrine Duggan, issued a statement on Monday saying: “We feel abandoned by the Australian government and deeply disappointed that they have completely failed in their duty to protect an Australian family…We are now considering our options.”