PROVIDENCE –– This man may have thought he could hide from the police by using someone else’s stolen identity.

Trouble was, it was the identity of another criminal.

When the state police stopped a man speeding in a BMW sport-utility vehicle on Thurbers Avenue after midnight last Friday, Capt. Raymond White said the driver produced a Rhode Island driver’s license with the name of 33-year-old Rafael Vargas –– a man with a criminal record, who looked nothing like the driver.

The driver was the wrong height, wrong weight, had the wrong Social Security number, and didn’t have any of Vargas’ tattoos –– all of which were listed under Vargas’ record in a national criminal database checked by the state trooper, White said.

The real Vargas also had an ID card from Pennsylvania and had been arrested before, but the driver told the trooper that he didn’t have any other licenses and had never been arrested.

After bringing the mystery driver back to the Lincoln Woods barracks and checking his fingerprints, the state police discovered the prints matched a man named Angel Berrios, 28 –– who was wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a conspiracy charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. His last known address was 55 Judith St. in Providence. White said that Berrios told the state police that he had been “on the run” from the warrant for two years. Berrios also had a suspended driver’s license from Massachusetts.

Berrios was arraigned for identity theft, obstruction of justice, driving with a suspended license, and presenting a false document to a public official. He was released to the custody of the FBI on $10,000 personal recognizance. The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on Berrios to investigate whether he is an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

First, the federal authorities are trying to determine that Berrios really is Berrios.

They know he’s not Vargas. His fingerprints match the man named Angel Berrios in the criminal database. But, White said, the authorities want to make sure there isn’t yet another identity for the man the troopers pulled over.

amilkovi@projo.com