Massachusetts authorities arrested an illegal migrant who was allegedly caught in his taxpayer-funded shelter with an AR-15 rifle and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illicit drugs.
Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, a 28-year-old Dominican national living unlawfully in the United States, has been charged with illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, illegal possession of a high-capacity magazine and heroin trafficking, a spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The charges mark the latest high-profile arrest of an illegal migrant living in one of Massachusetts’ state-funded shelters for migrants and other homeless families.
Andujar was arrested on Dec. 27 after a search warrant was served at the Quality Inn in Revere, Massachusetts, one of many hotels that are used as emergency shelters across the state. Authorities seized an AR-15 rifle, ammunition and around five kilograms of fentanyl and cocaine. The seized drugs have an estimated street value of around $750,000, according to Boston 25.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed Friday that the Dominican national illegally entered the U.S. prior to his criminal arrest.
“Mr. Andujar has been accused of serious crimes, and ERO Boston takes its public safety mission very seriously — which is why we’ve lodged an immigration detainer against him with Revere police,” ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a public statement. “The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has charged him with possessing dangerous weapons and drug trafficking, and with the Revere Police Department’s cooperation, we intend to take him into ICE custody upon his release.”
ICE determined Andujar entered the U.S. as a “gotaway,” having illegally crossed into the country at an unknown location sometime around 2024. The agency also praised Revere police for helping identify him after his arrest — a level of cooperation not typical across the state of Massachusetts.
This is not the first time a migrant has been accused of committing a serious crime while staying at one of Massachusetts’ state-funded shelters.
Cory Alvarez, a Haitian national who entered the U.S. through the Biden-Harris administration’s CHNV mass-parole program, was arrested in March for allegedly raping a disabled minor at a Comfort Inn in Rockland, Massachusetts, that was being utilized for migrant housing. That individual has since been apprehended by ICE agents and is subject to removal orders.
Approximately 355,000 illegal migrants and other inadmissible foreign nationals live in Massachusetts, and around 50,000 have arrived since 2021, according to estimates by the Center for Immigration Studies. A state commission report released in November predicted that Massachusetts would spend more than $1 billion on its emergency shelter system to house migrants and other families in the 2025 fiscal year.
The Quality Inn in Revere, where Andujar was living before his arrest, is one of 128 motels and hotels used in Massachusetts since the illegal immigration crisis began in 2022, according to Boston 25.
Democrat Gov. Maura Healey, in her efforts to clamp down on her state’s migrant crisis, has publicly encouraged illegal immigrants to not go to Massachusetts, offered plane tickets for them to leave and has requested residents to take in migrant families.
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