PROVIDENCE – A Portuguese national arrested at his West Warwick home in August 2024 by members of the U.S Marshals Fugitive Task Force on multiple outstanding arrest warrants pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of illegal entry and was sentenced to time served (six months), announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.
At the time of his arrest, it was learned that active arrest warrants were pending for Joao Luis Vieira, 45, in Bristol County, Massachusetts for cocaine trafficking, for reckless driving/eluding police in East Providence, and a failure to appear in Kent County Court in Rhode Island.
A review of immigration data bases performed by Homeland Security Investigations Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents determined that Viera had been removed from the United States to Portugal in December 2013. An immigration judge ordered his deportation a month earlier.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond sentenced Vieira to time served (six months). An immigration detainer has been lodged by ICE.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Peter I. Roklan.
The matter was investigated by the U.S Marshals Fugitive Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations Immigration and Custom Enforcement.
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