Methuen Man Sentenced to 27 Months for Identity Fraud

BOSTON – A Dominican national living in Methuen was sentenced on Monday for using stolen identities to obtain official identification documents.

Delcin Belarminio Soto Baez, a/k/a Nelso Santos Ramos, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV, to 27 months in prison and one year of supervised release.  In July 2014, Baez pleaded guilty to passport fraud and false representation to the Social Security Administration.  

In April 2004, Baez submitted an application for a U.S. passport at the U.S. Post Office in Lawrence, representing himself to be José Torres, an individual born in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and, therefore, a U.S. citizen.  Almost eight years later, in January 2012, Baez submitted an application for a Social Security number replacement card at the Social Security Administration District Office in Lawrence, representing himself to be Hermer Maldonado, a U.S. citizen also born in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

A subsequent investigation revealed that Baez assumed the identities of the true JosJ Torres and Hermer Maldonado, which he supported with government issued birth certificates and photo identification documents.  Baez provided these identities, along with other aliases, to law enforcement officials at various times when arrested on separate and unrelated state narcotics charges.  Baez is a citizen of the Dominican Republic with no legal status in the United States.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; David W. Hall, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of States, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Boston Field Office; and Scott Antolik, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Boston Field Division, made the announcement.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos A. López of Ortiz’s Drug Task Force Unit.