A Tewksbury man arrested last week with a six-figure drug stash in the same apartment as a 9-month-old baby is a twice-deported illegal immigrant who has used at least five different names, authorities said.
Wilson Soto, 49, is charged with drug trafficking, conspiracy to violate the drug law, identity fraud and possessing a false or stolen identity. When police fingerprinted Soto, they learned he had previously used the names Julio Moreno-Morales, Juan Antonio Baez-Castillo and Wilson Isenia Rodriguez, all with different dates of birth, Tewksbury police detective Patrick M. Connor wrote in his narrative.
“A closer look revealed Wilson (using the name Juan Baez-Castillo) was arrested for drug charges out of N.H. in 1991 and subsequently removed from the country,” Connor said. “Wilson was arrested again for illegal entry into the U.S. on 2/27/11 in Laredo, Tex. under the same name (Juan Baez-Castillo).”
Soto had a driver’s license in the name of Orlando Maldonado when he was arrested last Thursday, and admitted the ID was fake, telling police he had used the fake name to get a driver’s license in Massachusetts, police said.
U.S. Customs and Immigration has lodged an immigration detainer against Soto, who is held on $500,000 bail, a spokesman for the agency told the Herald.
“Mr. Baez-Castillo has been repatriated to his home country on two prior occasions, most recently in 2011,” the spokesman said, referring to Soto by one of his aliases.
After the latest charges are dealt with, including any potential prison time, ICE intends to deport Soto to the Dominican Republic, the spokesman said, adding that previously deported illegal immigrants can be prosecuted for re-entry and face up to 20 years in federal prison.
More than two dozen troopers, police officers, and Drug Enforcement Agency agents were involved in the 6 a.m. raid last Thursday and seized 1,049 grams of cocaine and 644 grams of fentanyl with a combined street value of $100,000.
When cops forced their way into the apartment, they said they found Cristina Richardson, 48, holding a 9-month-old baby just steps away from a suspected fentanyl stash, the police report states. The child was taken to a relative’s home, authorities said, and the Department of Children and Families is investigating, according to a spokeswoman.
Wilson Soto was arrested last Thursday along with Richardson and their son, Yojanel Soto, 20. Richardson posted $25,000 bail and was released with a GPS monitoring device, court records show. ICE officials are monitoring her case, but have not taken any action.
Yojanel Soto also had been arrested in Lawrence last January and charged with possession to distribute heroin and is on probation in that case until Oct. 19 of next year, police said. He is being held on $50,000 bail.
[“Source-bostonherald”]