LOWELL — A Dominican national who has lived in the United States illegally since the Bush administration now stands indicted on federal charges that he used a real American's identity to fleece taxpayers out of more than $44,000 in pandemic relief and food stamps.

Prosecutors say Montero Diaz — a Dominican Republic citizen who has been in the country unlawfully since approximately 2007 — used a U.S. citizen's identity to apply for and collect about $30,000 in unemployment benefits made available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. He is also accused of using the same stolen identity to pull in roughly $14,000 in SNAP benefits, the federal food-stamp program.

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 prison and a $250,000 fine. The theft of government money charge carries up to 10 years. The two aggravated identity theft counts each come with a mandatory minimum of two years tacked on top of whatever sentence the other counts produce.

The case is one of the first to surface from U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley's new Benefit & Voter Fraud Team, a district-wide initiative she announced in March in response to what her office called "rampant fraud" being uncovered across Massachusetts. Days later, the Department of Justice followed with its own announcement: a National Fraud Enforcement Division, part of President Trump's task force chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to root out fraud, waste, and abuse in federal benefit programs.

Massachusetts residents who suspect benefit fraud can report it to the new task force by calling 1-855-SCAM-MA-1.

Montero Diaz will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.