Posted by By Michael Kunzelman on
A federal judge agreed Monday to postpone the deportation of a former government informant who claims he will be jailed, tortured and possibly killed if he sent back to his native Nigeria.
A federal judge agreed Monday to postpone the deportation of a former government informant who claims he will be jailed, tortured and possibly killed if he sent back to his native Nigeria.
Frank Enwonwu, 55, a convicted drug smuggler jailed in Boston under immigration rules, was scheduled to be deported Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
On Monday, however, District Court Judge William Young gave Enwonwu's lawyer until April 27 to gather evidence that Enwonwu is in danger if he returns to Nigeria.
In January 1986, Enwonwu was arrested at Logan Airport on drug trafficking charges after Customs inspectors found five ounces of heroin in his possession. He later pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was spared a prison sentence in exchange for his testimony against several alleged accomplices.
Enwonwu's lawyer, Robert Carmel-Montes, said his client had a deal with the Drug Enforcement Administration to grant Enwonwu asylum for his testimony.
"I still need to determine if the deal went beyond a handshake or if there was something more substantive," Carmel-Montes told Young.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Crowley said the government never promised Enwonwu he wouldn't be deported.
Enwonwu was arrested again after a 1996 federal immigration law ordered the deportation of people with past convictions. He spent nearly two years behind bars before U.S. Immigration Judge Leonard Shapiro agreed in 1999 that Nigerian government officials "more likely than not" would imprison and possibly torture Enwonwu, either because of his drug conviction or because he cooperated with the DEA.
He was arrested again last September when he went to renew his work visa and discovered that Homeland Security officials had successfully appealed Shapiro's 1999 ruling to the federal Board of Immigration Appeals.
His sister, Rose Enwonwu, said his attempt to smuggle heroin into the U.S. was a "one-time thing" borne out of financial desperation.
She and other relatives say he has led a law-abiding, productive life since his arrest 19 years ago, and has two sons who now attend college in Massachusetts. Enwonwu drove a taxi cab in Boston for many years before he earned his realtor's license in 2003. In February 2004, he was named Employee of the Month at a ReMax office in Malden.