HARTFORD — A Romanian man who was arrested last month in Manchester with a pair of forged international licenses has been charged with illegally reentering the United States after being deported, prosecutors said.
Ioan Rostas, 36, was taken into custody by federal immigration officials after the arrest and appeared in Hartford federal court Thursday, according to David X. Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Sullivan said Rostas was facing immigration removal proceedings in New York when he absconded from an alternative detention program in March 2023. He said the man was later ordered removed to Romania in absentia.
Sullivan said Rostas remained free until October of that year when he was apprehended by law enforcement in Berkeley County, West Virginia for using a false identity and obstructing an officer. He was deported the next month.
However, Rostas returned to the country and was arrested on April 26 in Manchester after police spotted him sitting in a parked vehicle that law enforcement in Georgia had been seeking in connection to retail thefts along the East Coast, Sullivan said.
Sullivan said Rostas initially provided an officer with a forged international license with someone else’s name. He said officers then searched the car and found a second forged international license, a large amount of new clothing with security devices still attached, and 10 bottles of perfume with “tester” stickers.
Rostas was charged with state forgery, larceny, interfering with an officer and criminal impersonation offenses, Sullivan said. He was later released on bond and turned over to ICE in Hartford pursuant to a detainer order, officials said.
Sullivan said Rostas faces up to two years in prison, if convicted.