Beltran was working aboard the F/V Blue Ballard, pictured in Unalaska in 2013. /Credit: Ray Call

State troopers arrested a man in Unalaska this week for impersonating his brother in order to obtain a commercial fishing license. And as KUCB’s Annie Ropeik reports, police wound up charging him with drug possession, too.

Thirty-eight-year-old Walter Beltran is from El Salvador. Troopers have been on the lookout for him since last year, when they got a tip from immigration officers in Las Vegas.

Beltran had been living there, and was arrested on a drug charge. After he was released, officers realized he might not be who he said he was. They warned Unalaska police he may have moved to town for a job.

This week, during a routine inspection aboard the fishing vessel Blue Ballard, Beltran finally turned up.

"I went down and boarded the boat," says trooper Sergeant Robin Morrisett. "I looked at the guy’s documents, and I knew about him, so I made the arrest."

Beltran is accused of using identification documents from his brother, who’s an American citizen. Now, Beltran is facing misdemeanor charges for that -- and for engaging in activities that are prohibited for undocumented immigrants:

"If you’re not lawfully admitted into the United States, which he wasn’t and he knew that, then you’re not allowed to work as an alien on a boat as a crew member," Morrisett says. It's a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Beltran’s also accused of carrying about a gram of methamphetamine with him. Unalaska police say they found it as Beltran was being processed at the local jail. And deputy chief Mike Holman says that’s a felony offense.

Holman says immigration officials have asked to keep Beltran in custody until further notice. Within the next few weeks, he’ll be transferred to an Anchorage jail.

This is the second time in a year that troopers have caught someone falsifying papers aboard a fishing boat. In January, they arrested 25-year-old Luis Valenzuela of Mexico for stealing someone’s identity in order to get a work license.

But Morrisett says generally, this only happens once every couple of years.

"I’m sure it goes on, but -- hard to catch," he says.

That’s because they don’t necessarily go looking for fake identities every day, on every vessel. Morrisett says they’re most likely to stumble on someone during an unrelated boarding.