5 Investigates uncovers a web of lies that allowed cars to be registered in Massachusetts in a dead person's name, a scheme that police say at least in part was to further a cocaine and heroin distribution ring in Boston and on the South Shore.It’s all under investigation as officials want to know whether someone inside the Registry of Motor Vehicles is actually assisting the criminals, 5 Investigates’ Mike Beaudet has learned.The case coming to light is over the numerous vehicles registered in the identity of Kennedy U. Ruiz, 34, of Lowell. He died Feb. 1, 2011 after a stroke.Since his date of death, 22 vehicles were registered in his name, the RMV confirmed to 5 Investigates.“Shouldn't the Registry be able to figure out if someone's dead?” Beaudet asked Gov. Charlie Baker, R-Mass.“First of all, registering cars using false identification is obviously a crime,” Baker replied.Baker confirmed that an investigation into the registrations is underway. 5 Investigates has learned the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau is also looking into it.“To me, the big question here is, ‘Did this involve somebody inside the Registry, yes or no?’ And the second one is, ‘What's the gap on our processes where the Registry needs to fix?’” Baker said.The apparent registration fraud was uncovered during a drug investigation, when detectives were watching cars used by suspected dealers to deliver heroin and cocaine.“We learned that the registered owner was dead,” said Braintree Police Det. Mark Sherrick. “I thought it was strange.”Sherrick’s investigation started in 2014 and eventually led to several arrests, including four people in Boston who are facing drug trafficking charges in Suffolk Superior Court.“They would take a car that was already parked there. Park the car they showed up in and go out and start conducting business,” Sherrick said.Sherrick says cars keep drug runners in business.“When you're selling drugs 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the same neighborhoods they need to keep swapping cars, not seeing the same cars over and over and over again,” Sherrick said.One of the cars followed during Sherrick’s investigation came back registered to Ruiz, and registered after his 2011 death.Not only was it registered in the deceased Ruiz’s name, it was registered at the address of a house in Sharon once belonging to William R. Keating, the former Norfolk District Attorney who is now a Massachusetts congressman.Three cars in all were registered in Ruiz’s name at the Sharon house, though all were registered after Keating sold his house.“I'd gotten these letters in the mail for this individual I assumed was the former owner and that they simply weren't paying up the tolls and the taxes on their cars or whatever,” said Will Wray, who lives in the Sharon house now and has been receiving mail in Ruiz’s name for the last few years.He had no idea why until 5 Investigates’ contacted him.“I assumed it was because a congressman used to live here and they had some sort of twisted sense of irony,” Wray said.Chip Faulkner with Citizens for Limited Taxation said he can’t understand why the RMV can't figure out if a car is being registered in a dead person's name.“It looks like the drug dealers are outsmarting the Registry,” Beaudet asked him.“That is a frightening thought,” Faulkner said. “I can't understand how this can happen in a supposedly efficient bureaucracy.”