Previously Deported Man Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Heroin & Fentanyl

Previously Deported Man Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Heroin & Fentanyl

A man previously deported from the United States on three different occasions pleaded guilty to trafficking heroin and fentanyl, and illegal reentry into the United States.

Juan Manu Pena-Zapata is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25, 2019.

Guilty Plea

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

According to information presented to the Court, members of the Rhode Island Fugitive Task Force, who were attempting to locate  Pena-Zapata based on a federal arrest warrant issued in the Western District of Michigan on a charge of using a false social security number, pulled over his a vehicle in Providence on September 18, 2018.

After placing Pena-Zapata in custody, agents searched his vehicle.

Inside a center console agents found three plastic bags containing controlled substances, later determined by the Rhode Island Department of Health to contain 4.89g of fentanyl, 5.00g of heroin, and 29.77g of fentanyl.

A follow-up investigation by the Fugitive Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations determined that Pena-Zapata, a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic, was previously deported from the United States on June 28, 2002; April 9, 2008; and April 7, 2010.