WAKEFIELD— For weeks, Boston's airwaves have been saturated with the story of Seamus Culleton — the Irish contractor from Wakefield, Massachusetts, whose American wife went on television after television pleading for his release from an ICE detention center in Texas. NBC Boston ran a sympathetic segment. CBS Boston followed. The Boston Globe profiled his plight. His wife Tiffany Smith told reporters she was 'begging' for her husband to come home. His attorney called the conditions 'torture.' A GoFundMe raised more than $27,000.

Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat currently running for his party's U.S. Senate nomination, seized on the case. 'If this administration truly cared about following legal pathways to immigration, like they claim to, why detain Seamus?' Moulton wrote on social media. 'Even with a green card application pending, he's still been locked up and held in inhumane conditions in Texas.'

Across the Atlantic, the story went even bigger. Ireland's Taoiseach Micheál Martin raised it in parliament. The Minister for Foreign Affairs called the U.S. Department of Homeland Security directly. Labour leader Ivana Bacik demanded the government 'pull out every stop and every diplomatic lever.' All for a man they were told had 'no criminal record — not even a parking ticket.'

There was just one problem: it wasn't true.

Today, the Irish Times revealed that Culleton was facing drug trafficking charges in Ireland when he left the country. In May 2008, he was charged with possession of drugs, possession of drugs for sale or supply, and obstructing a Garda — Ireland's national police — after he allegedly threw 25 ecstasy tablets on the ground during a search at his home in Glenmore, Co. Kilkenny. He was due to face those charges at New Ross District Court. He never showed up. In March 2009, he hopped on a plane to America under the visa waiver program — a tourist visa good for 90 days. One month later, the court issued a bench warrant for his arrest. He never went back. A second warrant followed in September 2009 for an alleged criminal damage incident. Both remain active 17 years later.

Culleton settled in the Boston area, overstaying his visa by more than 16 years. He started a contracting business, got a Massachusetts driver's license, and eventually married Smith, a U.S. citizen, in April 2025. The couple lived together in Wakefield and began the green card application process. On paper, it looked like a straightforward path to legal status — spouse of a citizen, local business owner, community ties.

But on September 9, ICE agents staked out the Home Depot on Route 1 in Saugus. Culleton had stopped in for supplies. When he pulled out of the parking lot, agents followed and pulled him over. He told them he was married to a citizen and had a green card application pending. It didn't matter. He was taken into custody and eventually transferred to Camp East Montana, an ICE detention facility on the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas — nearly 2,000 miles from his wife in Wakefield.

That's when the media campaign began. Smith went to every Boston outlet that would listen. Culleton called into Ireland's RTÉ Radio from the detention center, comparing it to 'a modern day concentration camp.' His attorney, Ogor Winnie Okoye, told reporters he was 'the perfect candidate' for favorable treatment. At no point did anyone mention the drug charges or the active warrants waiting for him back in Ireland.

When Irish reporters finally confronted Okoye with the court records on a live press conference Wednesday, she appeared blindsided. 'This is the first time that we are hearing about that,' she said. 'I can't speak to a warrant.' She added that 'a warrant is not a conviction' — and confirmed she hadn't even discussed the allegations with her own client.

The Department of Homeland Security has been less sympathetic throughout. DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Culleton received 'full due process' and was issued a final order of removal just one day after his arrest. 'He was offered the chance to instantly be removed to Ireland but chose to stay in ICE custody,' she said. 'Being in detention is a choice.'

Neither Seth Moulton nor any of the Irish politicians who championed Culleton's cause have commented since the drug charges were revealed.