(NIT photo)
Steven Jarret, also known as Steven Jones, 55, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, was sentenced after pleading guilty on February 17, 2026, to one count of being found in the United States after illegal reentry.
Federal prosecutors said Jarret had previously been removed or deported from the United States in 1995, 2008 and 2013.
His 2008 removal came after convictions in 2003 in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas for entering the United States on a false passport and drug trafficking. He was sentenced to five years in prison and removed from the country after completing that prison term.
His 2013 removal came after he had returned to the United States and was convicted in 2012 of money laundering in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.
Despite those removals, prosecutors said Jarret was again found in the United States in December 2025, when law enforcement officers in the Northern District of Iowa stopped him while he was driving a commercial vehicle.
Jarret was arrested for a traffic violation. Immigration officials later found him while he was being processed at the Howard County Jail and arrested him on the federal immigration case.
At sentencing, the judge said Jarret was a “dangerous drug dealer” when he was convicted in 2003 for trafficking more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and possessing a loaded gun. The judge also pointed to Jarret’s 2012 conviction for laundering more than $140,000 in drug proceeds.
The judge said the United States has an interest in keeping dangerous drug dealers out of the country.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Jarret in Cedar Rapids to 37 months in federal prison. Jarret must also serve three years of supervised release after the prison term.
There is no parole in the federal prison system.
The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative focused on illegal immigration enforcement, cartels, transnational criminal organizations and violent crime.
Jarret (pictured at top) remains in the custody of the United States Marshal until he can be transported to federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations.