METHUEN — A 61-year-old Dominican national living illegally in Massachusetts has been charged with stealing an American citizen's identity and using it to obtain a Massachusetts REAL ID, multiple state identification cards, and a U.S. passport — and then allegedly using that stolen passport to fly back and forth to the Dominican Republic.

Prosecutors allege Urena-Almanzar assumed the identity of a U.S. citizen — a real American with a real Social Security number — and used that name to collect multiple Massachusetts identification cards, a U.S. passport, and a state REAL ID. He then allegedly used the passport to travel internationally between the United States and his home country.

A Massachusetts REAL ID. Issued by the state. To a man allegedly using somebody else's name.

This is not Urena-Almanzar's first encounter with the federal system. In 1995, he was convicted of fraud involving an illegal communication device in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Six years later, in 2001, he pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Two federal convictions across two coasts. Three decades on file. Still in Methuen, still allegedly working with someone else's identity.

If convicted on the new charges, he faces up to five years in prison on the Social Security count and a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft. He is also subject to deportation once any sentence is served.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Massachusetts State Police.