A U.S. fugitive convicted on 12 counts of sexual misconduct involving two boys has been arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport.

Steven Dyer was convicted in absentia in Arizona in 2002 of molesting a young boy and a teenager between 1999 and 2001.

According to the TV show America’s Most Wanted, which featured Dyer’s case in November 2010, the man befriended a young boy by giving him alcohol and taking him on trips.

Steven Dyer has been on the run since 2002. (Courtesy of the Scottsdale Police Department)

He repeatedly molested the boy during that time. He was also implicated in similar acts with a teenager on at least two occasions.

Dyer, who was a volunteer with Big Brothers and a youth sports coach, was arrested in 2001 after the parents of one of the boys contacted police.

He fled while out on bail and was convicted in absentia in 2002 on 12 counts of sexual conduct with a minor and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Members of Dyer's family were stopped by authorities while crossing into the U.S. from Canada while Dyer was on the run, according to America’s Most Wanted, but they denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.

Assumed fake identity

In December, the Canada Border Services Agency learned that Dyer had assumed the identity of a Canadian citizen and was living in Vancouver, although he was out of the country at the time.

"Was he in Vancouver the entire 10 years? This is not information that I have but he was fraudulently in Canada," said agency official Véronique Lalime.

He was identified and arrested when he tried to return to the country from Venezuela on Tuesday.

Lalime said he is being held in the Montreal-area will appear in court in the near future.

"He broke Canadian laws as well, because he was living under a false identity, so he’ll have to face Canadian law as well," she said.

Dyer has not yet been sentenced in the U.S. but faces a minimum of 169 years in prison.