A Massachusetts state senator is calling the state’s emergency housing assistance program into question after an illegal immigrant was allegedly caught with an AR-15 and about $1 million worth of fentanyl in a state-subsidized hotel room.
Leonardo Andujar Sanchez of the Dominican Republic, 28, was arrested by Revere Police on Dec. 27 and charged with 11 criminal counts in Chelsea District Court. Ten were related to firearms possession – including one for being an “alien” in possession of a firearm – and one for possession of approximately 10 pounds of the synthetic opiate.
Sanchez was also charged in Massachusetts federal court on Wednesday with possession with intent to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl and unlawful possession of a firearm. He had been living at the Quality Inn in Revere, where authorities found five kilograms of suspected fentanyl, an AR-style assault rifle, ammunition, two rifle magazines, digital scales and latex gloves in his room, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston estimated that the drugs were collectively worth about $1 million, according to an agency press release. The agency was called in by local police after Sanchez was arrested, and determined that he had entered the U.S. illegally.
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Sanchez was arraigned on Dec. 30 and denied bail. Judge Jane Prince ordered the court documents sealed, but records in federal court provided some details about Sanchez’s arrest.
Sanchez’s girlfriend called Revere police around 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 27 to report that he had drugs and a long, black gun hidden under a pink suitcase in their hotel room. The woman told police that she had been living at the Quality Inn for three months and that she and Sanchez had obtained the room through a refugee program.
Police entered the room where Sanchez was sleeping, woke him and handcuffed him. They then found fentanyl, an AR-style assault rifle, ammunition, digital scales and latex scales, commonly used in drug distribution, a Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer wrote in federal court records.
The Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities told the Boston Herald that Sanchez and his family had been living at the Revere Quality Inn since Oct. 15.
The office told the outlet that it conducts warrant checks on its emergency assistance residences every 30 days, and that it has on-site security at hotels used for the program at all times.
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“There is zero tolerance for criminal activity in EA shelters,” the office told Boston 25. “We took immediate action to terminate this individual from the EA system, and we confirmed with federal immigration officials that they have lodged a detainer.”
The shelter is just a short drive from Downtown Boston, where Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu has said that the city’s sanctuary policies “make everyone safer.” Wu, who was previously criticized for excluding White people from a holiday party, did not respond to Fox News Digital’s repeated requests for comment on the migrant situation.
Gov. Maura Healey expressed anger over the incident, saying, “It’s outrageous that this individual took advantage of our shelter system to engage in criminal activity.”
Healey ordered an inspection of all shelters, starting with the Quality Inn Hotel in Revere, as well as a “full review” of the state’s shelter intake processes.
Boston and Massachusetts both have sanctuary policies in place and both Wu and Healey have vowed to resist President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to crack down on illegal immigration.
State Sen. Ryan Fattman questioned how Sanchez was able to take advantage of the program while several of his native-born constituents could not.
“We just had a mother of two whose house burned down in my district a few days ago. And she can’t get access to a shelter because we’ve decided to help the world. I mean, this is outrageous,” Fattman told Fox News Digital.
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Since 1983, Massachusetts has been the only state in the nation to provide a “Right to Shelter” for homeless families – adults accompanied by one or more children. Over the past two years, Fattman said, the state has spent about $2.5 million sheltering undocumented immigrants under its emergency shelter program.
“What we’ve started to learn is that the vetting process for a bunch of these individuals is flawed because we’ve had dangerous criminal migrants coming into Massachusetts and inflicting harm upon not just our people, but some of the people in the shelter,” Fattman said. “And so this gentleman, Sanchez, is the most recent from the Dominican who trafficked $1 million worth of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine and had firearms that are illegal in Massachusetts. And he’s got a taxpayer-funded shelter program, which he’s living out of.”
Residents of the state’s emergency shelter program must be within 115% of federal poverty guidelines, making less than $1,443 per month with an additional $515 for each additional person in the household, the Boston Herald reported.
But according to the outlet, Sanchez has retained a private attorney.
“Criminals are cunning, so they’re not going to reveal if they know there’s a free program that they can take advantage of potentially all their assets, especially if they’re trafficking drugs… They’re not stupid for the most part, and they’re going to take advantage of our laws. And clearly that is what they’re doing,” Fattman said.
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“And now it just adds insult to injury, because they can clearly afford to have private representation, but a public taxpayer-funded room to live out of and to traffic drugs out of in and they’re in ahead of line in front of people that I represent whose houses are burned down and they have children and about to go homeless, you know, getting driven out of the hotel that they’re renting through insurance money,” he continued.
Fattman insists that unsealing Sanchez’s court documents is the first step to understanding the state’s apparent shortcomings in its vetting process for the program.
“We need to know in order to make the best course forward, how to change this. And the only way to know is by un-impounding the documents and revealing what’s in them and knowing how this person got here – who made the decision to bring them here?” Fattman said. “Like if they’re part of a cartel, you basically have invited the cartels into Massachusetts to do harm to our families, our children. It’s just totally unacceptable.”
Massachusetts’ Republican Party in August accused Healey of quietly having spent over $1 billion on the state’s migrant crisis.
“The Healey-Driscoll Administration has shrouded nearly $1 billion spent in secrecy, leaving Massachusetts residents in the dark,” Massachusetts Republican Party Chair Amy Carnevale said in a statement at the time. “They have withheld critical information on 600 incidents involving police, fire, and EMTs. Blocking journalists at every turn, the administration has obstructed the flow of information to the public.”
The Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities and the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
During a Friday news conference, though, Healey said Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state, that all shelters are undergoing mandatory searches, and background checks are being conducted on everyone in the state’s shelter system to ensure that no criminals are living in those facilities.
The Democratic governor said she has been disappointed with the federal government’s handling of immigration and hopes President-elect Trump addresses the border issue.
Fox News’ Peter Pinedo and Andrew Fone contributed to this report.
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