Daniel Duggan, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot, will be sent from Australia to the United States to face charges that he unlawfully trained Chinese pilots. On Monday, Australia’s Attorney General Mark Dreyfus gave the go-ahead for the extradition, bringing an end to the 55-year-old, Boston-born man's nearly two-year effort to avoid being sent back to the U.S.

Duggan, a former Marine who served for 12 years, moved to Australia and gave up his U.S. citizenship. He has been in a maximum-security prison since his arrest in 2022 at his family home in New South Wales. Duggan is the father of six children. In a statement on Monday, Dreyfus acknowledged that he had granted the extradition, but he did not specify when Duggan would be sent 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.

In May, a judge in Sydney decided that Duggan could be sent to the U.S. for trial, leaving his final chance of staying in Australia dependent on an appeal to the attorney general. A 2016 indictment from the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., which was made public in late 2022, accused Duggan of working with others to train Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, and possibly at other times, without obtaining the required license. He received payments from another conspirator for what was often referred to as "personal development training" totalling around 88,000 Australian dollars ($61,000), according to the prosecution.

Duggan may be imprisoned for up to 60 years if found guilty. He disputes the accusations. “We feel abandoned by the Australian government and deeply disappointed that they have completely failed in their duty to protect an Australian family,” his wife, Saffrine Duggan, said in a statement on Monday. “We are now considering our options.”