Kataklysm Guitarist Detained by Custom Officials

Posted on Jun 10th 2009 1:00PM by Chris Harris Comments

Canadian metal band Kataklysm are back from a recent road stint in Russia, but unfortunately, guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais was detained by federal agents upon the band's arrival in the United States.

According to frontman Maurizio Iacono, U.S. custom officials took the guitarist into "a room with only one chair and a table," and kept him for "five hours until they finally talked to him and they told him that he was wanted internationally and by the U.S. government."

It seems there's another dude named Jean-Francois Dagenais who's on the FBI's most wanted list, and is wanted by international authorities, too.

"After a few hours of denying everything, Interpol sent in a picture and that picture didn't match his," Iacono says. "They thought they'd caught him. It's just ironic that we expected this to maybe happen in Russia, but in the end it ended up happening right here at home."

The way Iacono tells it, the band arrived in Washington D.C., where they were to catch connecting flights to Chicago and Montreal. "We grabbed our bags and went through immigration with no problems, as expected," he says. "As we're waiting in line for the customs exit, some uniformed guy grabs Jean-Francois and take him away with his bags. We assumed it was just a random check."

The band continued on, to make their connecting flights, and realized that after an hour or so, Dagenais was still no where to be found. "I go back to the customs area and the place is deserted. At this point we started worrying and asking questions but we received no answers. We decide to board our plane at 4:30 pm with still no sign of him. Someone from United Airlines tells me finally he won't be joining our flight but still no reason is given."

The idea that Dagenais could be mistaken for a criminal was amusing, because "he couldn't hurt an ant," Iacono says. "He's one of the most down-to-earth and sweetest people you could meet." Eventually, the custom officials realized their blunder, and released Dagenais with "a tap on the shoulder and [an] apology."

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