Two illegal immigrants — including one caught in a fentanyl sting dubbed “Operation Dead End” — face deportation after officials said they were dealing “deadly poisons” in Boston and around the South Shore.
Both men are being held on high bail in the Suffolk County House of Correction, but the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston told the Herald that if they make bail, they will be detained by ICE, held for trial and any prison time, before being deported back to the Dominican Republic.
“The key to this fight is arresting criminal aliens who, after illegally entering the U.S., proceed to traffic in these deadly poisons,” said Todd M. Lyons, acting Field Office Director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Boston.
Lyons said ICE has issued detainers against the suspected drug dealers — Daniefri Miguel Romero-Diaz and Rafael Guerrero-Arias — who were both arrested by Boston police and the Norfolk County Drug Task Force on Feb. 15.
Romero-Diaz was arrested on charges of trafficking in heroin and fentanyl. He was ordered held this week on $50,000 bail. He is due back in court March 14.
He is accused of “distributing heroin/fentanyl in Braintree and surrounding South Shore communities,” according to his arrest report. He was swept up in what police called “Operation Dead End” — a “lengthy investigation” into a drug ring based in Boston and into the South Shore.
The fentanyl was delivered, a police report states, using a driver in a 2005 Honda Pilot. That vehicle was registered to an unnamed suspect out of Boston, police added.
An undercover police officer assisted in the drug sting and was used to buy fentanyl from the ring via text message, police said.
Guerrero-Arias is being held on $20,000 bail at the Suffolk lock-up and is due back in court March 5.
Police say he sold heroin on the streets in the Eagle Hill-Orient Heights area of East Boston, along Saratoga and Bremen streets.
Lyons said both suspects will not be let back out.
“At the conclusion of the criminal charges against both men, ICE will assume custody and begin removal proceedings,” he said.
“The overall fight against the opioid/fentanyl crisis in our region cannot be fully engaged unless it includes a focus on the distribution of these drugs by criminal illegal aliens,” Lyons added.
The Suffolk District Attorney’s Office said high bail was set for both men this week, with Judge John McDonald ruling on the Guerrero-Arias case and Judge Mary Ann Driscoll for Romero-Diaz.
Both suspects are now in the same jail where other ICE detainees say they’re on a hunger strike. In a letter sent to the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office, the illegal immigrants say the “food is always bad … and there is no condiment such as salt and pepper.” They also complained about he TVs and guards being rude.
