US deports suspect in drug case
BY DAVID LINTON
Friday, March 5, 2010 2:16 AM EST




US deports suspect in drug case


Local charges still pending against dealer

MANSFIELD - A convicted drug dealer who authorities say was in the country illegally when local police and a regional drug task force broke up a heroin deal in September has been deported while state charges still were pending against him.

The suspect, who authorities identified as Joan Alberto Brea, 43, of Roxbury, was deported under the name Juan Baez, 43, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement agency confirmed.

Police say Baez was one of the three aliases Brea gave when he was arrested by local police and the Northern Bristol County Drug Task Force in September with $8,500 worth of heroin in a vacuum-packed plastic bag.

Brea used several aliases, Social Security numbers and dates of birth, and was identified as Brea after police checked his fingerprints through both the state police and FBI computer databases, according to police.

Police say suspects use aliases and several forms of identification as a way of hiding a criminal background and avoiding prosecution. Juan Baez was the name listed on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement warrant pending against him at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors and a Bristol County Jail spokesman.

Brea was deported under the name Juan Baez in "late January," according to ICE spokesman Harold Ort, who refused to comment further on Baez's deportation.

But police say they were told by federal authorities that Brea was deported Jan. 19 to the Dominican Republic when they were checking into the status of his criminal case.

When asked if Baez was erroneously deported, Ort said, "I haven't heard that."

Federal deportation proceedings are conducted separately from court proceedings in criminal cases, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter.

Miliote said it is unusual for a defendant to be deported while criminal charges are still pending. At the request of prosecutors, a judge in New Bedford Superior Court issued a default warrant against Brea last Friday.

The default warrant will appear on Brea's criminal record should he ever enter the country again, according to Miliote.

Brea was facing charges of trafficking heroin, giving a false name to police, driving with a suspended license, forging a Registry document, malicious destruction and committing a drug violation near a park.

He was indicted in October and pleaded innocent in November in New Bedford Superior Court. He posted $100,000 cash bail for his release on Dec. 2, according to court records.

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