Dominican national admits to felony count

PROVIDENCE — A Dominican national who had his fingerprints removed to avert his true identity pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a federal charge of reentering the country illegally after having been deported.

 

Robert M. Cordero-Luciano, 26, admitted his guilt to the felony charge that could send him to prison for up to 20 years and a maximum fine of $250,000. He has been jailed without bail since his arrest. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9.

 

Once he completes his sentence, he will be deported to the Dominican Republic.

 

The state police arrested Cordero-Luciano last summer after he presented a forged Puerto Rican license to a clerk at the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Pawtucket. He was trying to obtain a Rhode Island drivers’ license.

The clerk contacted authorities, and Cordero-Luciano was taken to the state police barracks in Lincoln for questioning. There, the police discovered the suspect’s fingerprints had been “burnt or mutilated,” beyond recognition. They were not able to lift his fingerprints to determine his identity.

 

But a detective, trained in facial recognition, photographed the suspect and ran the image through a national database. A few minutes later, the police got a hit: Cordero-Luciano had four different Massachusetts drivers’ licenses with different names, birth dates and Social Security numbers.

 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adi Goldstein told the court that Cordero-Luciano commended the detective for his investigative skills.

 

“You got me. Good job,” he said. “I didn’t think you could figure out who I was.”

 

In May 2005, Cordero-Luciano was arrested in Fall River and convicted on drug charges. He served a few months in jail before he was deported to the Dominican Republic in October 2006.

The police say that he paid a smuggler $5,000 and returned through Mexico about two months later.