Heroin dealer held by ICE after sentence review
A heroin dealer from Peabody was taken into custody by immigration agents yesterday while out on probation for his drug conviction — a sentence that sparked calls for a superior court judge to be impeached.
Officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Boston concluded a legal review of Manuel Soto-Vittini’s drug conviction and arrested him in Peabody “for violating the terms of his status in the U.S.,” ICE spokesman John Mohan said in a statement.
“He will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his immigration case,” Mohan said.
Soto-Vittini was arrested without incident and is being held at the Plymouth County House of Correction until a hearing in immigration court, an ICE official said.
Soto-Vittini’s May sentencing sparked outcry because — in the middle of an opioid epidemic — he was handed a sentence of two years’ probation by Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Q. Feeley.
Gov. Charlie Baker and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo pushed for the Supreme Judicial Court to review the sentencing in the wake of the comments published from a court transcript showing Feeley saying to Soto-Vittini’s lawyer if he were a “citizen” he would be sent off to jail.
“If he was a citizen, I’d send him — I’d probably do House time, but I’d send him to the House. I would,” Feeley said at an office conference. Feeley had also referred to Soto-Vittini’s drug-dealing as an “economic crime,” saying he was trying to support his family.
News reports of Feeley’s statements prompted protests from parents whose children had died of drug overdoses, as well as from a Salem police captain who described the scourge of drugs on city streets.
State Reps. James Lyons and Geoff Diehl called on legislators to back a bill of address to remove Feeley from the bench.