Dealer reappears after faking witness protection

A convicted drug dealer who disappeared for more than a year after he left a phone message for his probation officer claiming he was in “a federal witness protection program” is back in custody and being held without bail.

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By ERIC FRANCIS HERALD CORRESPONDENT | November 22,2016 WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A convicted drug dealer who disappeared for more than a year after he left a phone message for his probation officer claiming he was in “a federal witness protection program” is back in custody and being held without bail. Daniel Ramos, 25, of Newark, New Jersey, denied violating his Vermont probation terms during a recent arraignment at White River Junction criminal court. He was returned to the Springfield jail. Ramos, who prosecutors allege used the street nickname Chubbz as a member of the Jersey Boys drug gang, was convicted in 2014 of selling crack cocaine the year before to a police informant. After serving six months of his overall six-to-30 month jail sentence, with the remainder suspended, Ramos was released in September 2014 and his probation transferred to his home state of New Jersey to allow him to move back there. However, a year later New Jersey officials informed their counterparts in Vermont that Ramos was missing. Probation Officer Eddie van Dijk in Vermont wrote in an affidavit that just before Ramos vanished, he left a phone message for his New Jersey probation officer saying he had been cooperating with “Agent Steve” and as a result “he was in a federal witness protection program and was residing at some undisclosed location in Pennsylvania.” Before he waived extradition and returned to Vermont voluntarily in 2014, Ramos had already been indicted for several firearms offenses in New Jersey. Ramos’ criminal history in New Jersey includes a juvenile record of convictions for robbery, burglary and weapons charges.