Apr 3, 2009 5:10 pm US/Eastern
Andover Woman First Female On EPA Fugitive List
BOSTON (AP) ―
A Boston-area businesswoman has become the first female on the
Environmental Protection Agency's fugitive Web site.
Ron Sanders reports she was convicted of selling fraudulent training certificates for dangerous asbestos removal to undocumented immigrants.
The Environmental Compliance Training Company in Methuen is closed and vacant now but EPA agents say it was the state's largest asbestos training removal company.
It was run by
Albania Deleon.
"We sent an undercover agent in who actually, we recorded the transaction of him jokingly buying certificate without receiving any training and found that was the norm," explained EPA Special Agent In Charge Michael Hubbard.
He says Deleon sold hundreds of undocumented immigrants bogus certificates for the dangerous work of asbestos removal.
"The untrained worker can pose a danger to himself, his co-workers, the surrounding area as well as the people who re-occupy the building," said Peter Kudarauskas, the EPA's Asbestos Enforcement Coordinator for New England, who adds the danger can ultimately include death from exposure.
Albania Deleon was tried and convicted of 28 felonies but failed to show-up for sentencing last month. The maximum exposure on all the charges is 230 years. Hubbard says the reality is that, under U.S. Sentencing guidelines, she was probably looking at 7 to 10 years.
We went to her last known address in North Andover where her husband lives with their 3-year-old child but, no answer. Deleon was born in the Dominican Republic and has out of state contacts.
Agent Hubbard says EPA fugitives have been known to be armed and dangerous, such as one in Florida who confronted agents with a semi-automatic rifle last month, was shot and wounded.
Hubbard says he had many weapons and 3,000 rounds of ammunition with him when he was arrested. EPA agents say anyone who encounters Albania Deleon should not try to apprehend her but should contact the EPA or police.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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