Freed heroin dealer put in deportation fast lane
ICE takes Peabody man into custody for ‘violating terms’ of being in U.S.
A grieving mother who lost her child to the opioid crisis said she felt relief when a Peabody heroin dealer was taken into custody by immigration agents Monday.
“Any heroin dealer you get off the streets saves lives. We just need to get more of them off the street,” said Lucy Kohler — who protested outside Salem Superior Court last month after Manuel SotoVittini received no prison time at his sentencing, and continues to protest with other parents every Wednesday.
Kohler’s son, Kyle, 29, died of a drug overdose in their Danvers home last October.
Soto-Vittini was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials “for violating the terms of his status in the U.S.,” after they concluded a legal review of his drug conviction.
“He will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his immigration case,” ICE spokesman John Mohan said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Soto-Vittini’s lawyer, Eduardo Masferrer, compared his pending deportation to the death of a parent, where there is a sudden and immediate loss of economic and emotional support.
“It’s catastrophic for his family,” Masferrer said, noting SotoVittini has two children, 6 and 3. “The children are confused. Dad’s here one day, dad’s gone the next,”
Masferrer added that SotoVittini faces being permanently barred from re-entry to the United States, saying that will prevent him from attending family events.
Soto-Vittini’s May sentencing sparked outcry when — in the midst of the opioid epidemic — he was handed a sentence of two years’ probation by Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Q. Feeley. Prosecutors were requesting three years in prison.
Feeley referred to Soto-Vittini’s drug-dealing as an “economic crime,” saying he was just trying to support his family, and also stated that if Soto-Vittini were a citizen and not at risk of deportation, he would have given him prison time.
“I think that’s disgusting in light of the opioid crisis,” Kohler said.
She hasn’t been the same since her son died, she said, but her two surviving children are proud of the work she’s doing to combat the national epidemic.
“I miss my son so much . ... You wake up differently, you go to bed differently,” she said. “Parents shouldn’t have to go through this. Kids shouldn’t have to go through this. But the dealers get them addicted.”
Masferrer said he expects that Soto-Vittini will be deported about two months after a hearing in immigration court, which has not been set. The lawyer added that ICE is pursuing the deportation process “significantly sooner” than he would have expected, and largely credited that to the attention the case has received.
“ICE would not normally have prioritized him over many other people but I think the publicity of this case generated had them make it a priority,” Masferrer said. “So when we talk about equal enforcement of laws, you can see quite clearly that ICE decides who and when they want to pick up.”