BOSTON — Two Dominican nationals living in Massachusetts illegally have been caught in the past week — one pleading guilty, one freshly indicted — for using stolen American identities to bilk taxpayer-funded welfare programs out of more than $62,000 combined.
The court action arrived in federal court in Boston as Governor Maura Healey moved to formally tighten the rules limiting Massachusetts agency cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Case 1: Boston — $18,000 in stolen food stamps
Victor Suazo Reynoso, 69, a Dominican national living in Boston, pleaded guilty on May 27 in federal court to using a real American citizen's name, date of birth, and Social Security number to obtain a Massachusetts driver's license and then collect more than $18,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.
Chief Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for September 2. Reynoso was charged and arrested in March.
SNAP is federally funded but state-administered. Massachusetts approved a Dominican national in the country illegally for food stamps after he handed over a Social Security number that was not his.
Case 2: Lowell — $44,000 in COVID relief and SNAP
Days earlier, federal prosecutors announced an indictment against Arvaro Montero Diaz, 40, a Dominican national who has lived in the United States illegally since 2007 — since the Bush administration. Montero Diaz was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of theft of government money, and one count of SNAP fraud.
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Prosecutors say Montero Diaz used a U.S. citizen's identity to apply for and collect roughly $30,000 in unemployment benefits made available under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. He is also accused of using the same stolen identity to pull in $14,000 in SNAP benefits.
Montero Diaz was first arrested on a criminal complaint on March 9, 2026. After a detention hearing three days later, a judge cut him loose on pretrial conditions — meaning the man federal prosecutors say drained $44,000 from American taxpayers has been walking free for nearly three months.
If convicted, the wire fraud and SNAP fraud counts each carry up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. The two aggravated identity theft counts each carry a mandatory minimum two-year sentence on top of whatever the other counts produce.
Same task force. Same pattern.
Both cases are products of U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley's Benefit & Voter Fraud Team — a district-wide initiative Foley stood up in March in response to what her office called "rampant fraud being uncovered across Massachusetts." The Department of Justice followed in April with a National Fraud Enforcement Division, part of President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance.
The Dominican-illegal SNAP fraud pattern is not new. In April, federal prosecutors charged a 57-year-old Dominican national in Worcester who had spent 25 years living under a dead U.S. citizen's identity — even doing state prison time under the stolen name — before applying for SNAP and collecting more than $12,000. In March, nine people were charged in a district-wide sweep that uncovered nearly $1 million in stolen SNAP, MassHealth, and Social Security benefits. Most of those defendants were Dominican nationals living in Massachusetts illegally.
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Meanwhile, on Beacon Hill
Last week, Governor Maura Healey announced new state restrictions further tightening when Massachusetts public agencies are permitted to cooperate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement — effectively narrowing the circumstances under which a Dominican national caught defrauding Massachusetts welfare can be turned over to ICE for deportation.
The federal cases are stacking up. The state is moving in the opposite direction.
What's next
Reynoso faces up to five years in federal prison per count, three years of supervised release, fines up to $250,000, and post-sentence deportation. Montero Diaz faces up to 20 years per count on the more serious wire fraud and SNAP counts, plus the mandatory minimums on aggravated identity theft.
The Reynoso case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David G. Tobin of the Major Crimes Unit. Homeland Security Investigations' New England office, under Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeff Grimming, investigated both.
Massachusetts residents can report suspected benefit fraud to the new task force at 1-855-SCAM-MA-1 (855-722-6621).
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