By David Klepper
The Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — A man facing murder charges in his native Dominican Republic was arrested in the U.S., Rhode Island State Police said Thursday.
Juan Carlos Zapata-Lara was taken into custody in Providence on July 20, state police Superintendent Col. Steven O’Donnell said.
The 29-year-old faces two counts of murder in his country. He also was charged with drug possession in Rhode Island after police say they seized 45 grams of heroin during his arrest.
The arrest came after members of a law enforcement task force in Providence learned that Zapata-Lara had entered the U.S. illegally and was living in Providence under an assumed name, police said.
Zapata-Lara resisted arrest and pushed a detective when police arrived to execute a search warrant at the residence he was sharing with a female acquaintance, state police Capt. Michael Winquist said. Winquist said officers had to use an electronic stun gun to immobilize the man before taking him into custody.
Zapata-Lara was arraigned July 23 in Rhode Island District Court and was being held Thursday without bond at the state’s Adult Correctional Institutions. Extradition talks were under way.
His attorney, Joseph J. Voccola, said there were legal questions about the way police handled the search warrant and arrest that he plans to bring up in court but declined to discuss the case further. Zapata-Lara’s next court appearance is in September, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Peter Kilmartin said.
An arrest warrant for Zapata-Lara was issued in the Dominican Republic in 2010 in connection with two shootings committed in March of that year.
“This (the arrest) is yet another example of the correlation between illicit drugs and violence that permeates our neighborhoods,” O’Donnell said.
Winquist said investigators do not know what brought Zapata-Lara to Rhode Island, but said he obtained a Massachusetts driver’s license in April using his alias.
The task force includes officers from the state police, local police departments and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.