Police say tow truck driver helps catch illegal immigrant (The Metro West Daily News)

Police say tow truck driver helps catch illegal immigrant
By Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Mar 16, 2008 @ 10:24 PM

NATICK —
Police say a friend's arrest and help from a local tow-truck driver helped them nab an illegal immigrant from Framingham wanted for skipping a deportation hearing.
Arnaldo Severino Dossantos, 47, was arrested Friday about 17 hours after a pal of his was pulled over on Rte. 9 because the black Volkswagen Jetta he was driving didn't have an inspection sticker.
As it turned out, Luiz Eduardo Viera was driving Dossantos' car. Police arrested Viera around 1 a.m. and charged him with driving without a license.
While police hauled Viera to the station for booking, Officer Christian Rodriguez, still on the scene, recognized Dossantos' name from the Jetta's registration as an illegal immigrant wanted by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He arranged with a tow truck driver from Mabardy's Gulf to take the car away, but call police when Dossantos came to get it.
"He asked them to alert us when he came in to get the car, which the service station did," said police Sgt. Brett Conaway.
Dossantos was arrested at Mabardy's on South Main Street at 6:36 p.m. Friday.
Rodriguez, who had gone off-duty and come back on for another shift, made the arrest. "It was good initiative by the officers," Conaway said.
ICE agents came to Natick Saturday to pick up Dossantos, who lives at 153 Second St., Apt. 363, Framingham.
Viera, meanwhile, will be arraigned on the motor vehicle charge this week in Natick District Court.
(Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-634-7521 or dameden@cnc.com.)