An accused drug kingpin from Nebraska evaded authorities for more than three decades — by assuming a dead baby’s identity, federal prosecutors revealed Thursday.
Howard Farley was finally nabbed on Wednesday, while trying to board his private plane in the hangar at his home in Florida, US Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez said in a statement.
The 72-year-old fugitive was indicted in 1985 for allegedly running the Southern Line, a railroad line used to move narcotics throughout the US.
Out of 73 people busted in the case, Farley was the only one who was never caught.
For 35 years, Farley allegedly lived on the lam — using the name of a Florida infant who died in 1955.
According to a criminal complaint, Farley stole the identity of an individual identified only as “T.B” who was born in Lake Worth, Fla., in 1954 and died three months later.
But his alleged ruse came to light after the government received an application for passport renewal in February using T.B.’s name, date of birth and Social Security number.
Investigators found the death records for that person, and discovered that T.B.’s Social Security information wasn’t registered until 1983, unusual for someone born in 1954.
The complaint alleges that Farley used T.B.’s information to obtain a passport on three occasions: in March 1987, October 1998 and October 2008.
He even used the fraudulent passport to travel to Vietnam in 2018, the court document states.
Investigators also allege that Farley got a Florida driver’s license and a pilot’s license using T.B.’s identity.
Officers seeking to charge Farley with passport fraud on Wednesday went to the Weirsdale, Fla., home he has shared with a 56-year-old Vietnamese woman since at least 2007, authorities said.
Fingerprint comparison confirmed that Farley was the same person wanted in Nebraska since 1985.
If convicted of the passport fraud charge, he will face a maximum of 10 years in federal prison.