 |
The suspect gave the name of Rafael Cesareo, authorities said. |
He has been sitting in a cell in the Suffolk County House of Correction at South Bay for nearly a month after being charged in connection with a Revere drug ring. And while the alleged crime might be all too ordinary, the inmate isn't, for one reason: Nobody knows who he is.
His name may be Rafael Cesareo, or Jonathan Caez, or Mario Guzman, or Mario Muzman, or Luis Alberto, or Mario Reyes. Or maybe none of the above.
The suspect, believed to be in his 30s, has somehow managed to destroy portions of his fingerprints. It has been only with the help of facial recognition software at the Registry of Motor Vehicles that State Police have unearthed an alias that predated his disfigurement and linked him to the identity of Muzman.
"At this point, he has not definitively been identified," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a telephone interview yesterday. "We've never had a situation where we have not been able to identity a defendant. Clearly, we are hindered here, but we are determined to find out who he is."
The suspect has been held without bail since being charged with participating in the Revere drug ring and on fugitive-from-justice charges for a drug conviction in New York.
When he was arrested in Revere, the suspect gave the name of Rafael Cesareo, authorities said. State Police have since learned that he allegedly obtained two drivers licenses from the Registry of Motor Vehicles under aliases, one as Muzman in 2000 and a second one as Cesareo in 2006. In 2005, he was rejected for a third under the name of Caez, according to records.
The suspect was among three people arrested on Jan. 31 after allegedly running a drug ring out of a third-floor apartment on Shirley Avenue in Revere, according to Conley's office. Police raided the apartment and found 28 grams of cocaine and what authorities called large amounts of heroin, money, and drug paraphernalia.
As Muzman, he is facing charges in Salem of selling cocaine in 2002, according to court records.
In New York he is known as Mario Muzman and as Luis Alberto, and authorities want him to return there to be sentenced for violating probation on a drug sales conviction that dates to 2001. Luis Alberto, they say, has been charged with jumping bail and with 2005 drug offenses.
The man is also under investigation by the State Department in connection with allegedly filing a false passport application in Lynn in 2006 while using the name of Rafael Luna Cesareo, the police report stated.
Federal investigators suspect the man's true identity is Mario Reyes, who has lived in Lynn in the past, according to the police report.
But to Massachusetts authorities, he is known to them as Jonathan Caez, Muzman, Guzman, and Cesareo.
Police in Lynn and Norwood stopped Cesareo for speeding during 2006, but took no further action against him because his use of aliases meant they could not learn he was wanted by New York authorities, police records showed.
Ann C. Dufresne, spokeswoman for the Registry, said the agency uses the face recognition software to review each person issued a new license or a license renewal, totaling 5,000 images daily.
From those, about 1,000 are selected for further inquiry. Ultimately the images of 10 to 15 people are sent to the State Police for further investigation of possible criminal activity, she said. "It's a great program."
Raymond D. Buso, the Salem-based lawyer for the man known as Cesareo, was out of the office yesterday and would not be available until next week, an aide said.
Conley said that his office sees only one or two people each year who have harmed themselves to prevent authorities from discovering who they really are. "I think facial recognition is something law enforcement is going to rely on more and more," he said.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
