Police: Illegal alien is heroin trafficker
WOONSOCKET –A national of the Dominican Republic with a record for trafficking in heroin under a phony name is facing deportation after police picked him up for identity fraud, obstructing and other charges.
Police said Manuel Martinez Lara, 41, was living at the Glenark Landing, a privatelyowned, rent-subsidized housing complex under the assumed name of Juan Villar.
Police reports say Lara recently showed officers a Massachusetts driver’s license bearing the name Villar, but Detective Thomas Beargeon learned Lara’s real name through other means, including biometric identification techniques and fingerprints. The investigation led police to obtain a warrant for Lara’s arrest Friday morning, on charges that also include providing public officials with a fraudulent document – the driver’s license.
Lara has been tied to at least three other fraudulent names and has a police record under one of them for the delivery of heroin in Providence in 2011, according to Officer Kyle Bishop’s
arrest report.
He has also been deported at least once previously by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and apparently reentered the United States unlawfully, the police report says.
Following his arrest, police said they briefed ICE on Lara’s arrest and the agency issued a warrant for his detention and possible deportation from the country again.
According to the state Department of Corrections database, Lara was previously convicted of identity fraud around the same time he was convicted on the drug traffick- ing charges.
Lara currently remains held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions as a violator of his sentence on the narcotics charges, according to the DOC database.
Following his arraignment in District Court, a judge also set bail on the new identity fraud charge at $25,000 with surety.
ICE issued a type of warrant for Lara known as a detainer, which doesn’t necessarily mean agency will step in immediately to deport him. Such a warrant gives immigration authorities to take custody of Lara when he resolves his problems in state courts and take up the question of deportation then.