BOSTON - A Dominican national charged with an immigration crime pleaded guilty and was sentenced in federal court in Boston yesterday.
Jose Mejia Ruiz, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful reentry of a deported alien. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced Mejia Ruiz to four months in prison and three years of supervised release.
In 2009, Mejia Ruiz, using the alias, Thomas Montes, was convicted in federal court in New York of passport fraud. Upon completion of his sentence, Mejia Ruiz was placed into removal proceedings, and on Jan. 12, 2011, he was deported to the Dominican Republic.
In June 2017, Mejia Ruiz, using an alias of Carmelo Rosado, was arrested by law enforcement in Massachusetts and charged in state court with drug distribution.
On Oct. 3, 2017, while in custody on the state drug charge at Middlesex House of Correction, it was determined that Mejia Ruiz was unlawfully present in the United States.
Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb and Michael Shea, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth G. Shine of Weinreb’s Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
