Posted on 06/19/2007 2:39:29 PM PDT by Graybeard58
A Winston-Salem woman who was a key player in a fake ID ring pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to making and distributing fake IDs.
Laura Bello-Castanada was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Greensboro to nine months in prison for her role in the illegal operation. Judge William Osteen, who handed down the sentence, also placed Bello-Castanada on probation for three years.
Bello-Castanada, who is from Mexico, took telephone orders from illegal immigrants for fake IDs and offered delivery service to customers, court documents show. After receiving a passport-size photograph and $250 to $400, Bello-Castanada provided the fake IDs.
She pleaded guilty to one count of producing false identification documents, possession a firearm illegally, and reentering the United State illegally after she had been deported. She was deported in 2000 after she tried to get a visa by fraud, which is a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“This is a serious matter to the court,” Osteen said.
“It gets more serious each year.”
Osteen ordered that Bello-Castanada, who lived in an apartment on Indiana Avenue, be deported again when she completes her sentence. After she is deported and begins probation, she will not be able to legally return to the United States, Osteen said.
Few details about the operation were offered in court by Bello-Castanada, her attorney Nancy Gaines or Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Husser. Some of the details are contained in court documents filed before her plea.
In August 2006, a confidential informant called Bello-Castanada to request cards. A special agent then wired money to her, and she mailed the fake cards to him in Brownsville, Texas.
Two months later, Bello-Castanada met the informant in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on Hanes Mill Road to deliver IDs and was arrested.
Through an interpreter, Bello-Castanada apologized for her role in the ID ring. Osteen pressed for more information, but Bello-Castanada offered few details.
“What are you sorry for?” Osteen asked her. “The fact that you got caught?”
“I’m ashamed,” Bello-Castanada replied in Spanish, her voice wavering.
Bello-Castanada told Osteen that she did not know why she participated in the operation. He said that her answer gave him some doubt about whether she would try to return to the United States and commit another crime.
Osteen could have sentenced Bello-Castanada to more prison time, but granted a motion by Husser to reduce her sentence. Bello-Castanada “immediately began cooperating” with authorities after she was arrested, Husser said in court.
“Her cooperation resulted in the arrest of four individuals,” Husser said.
Bello-Castanada is the last to be sentenced of the five co-conspirators in the operation, court documents show.
Jesus Mendoza Lopez, Cristian Luis Madrid-Paz and Gerardo Galan Gaytan have also pleaded guilty in federal court and were sentenced to prison.
Faking the ID’s that...
Of course, under the Senate bill, this won’t in any way disqualify her from the amnesty provisions.
Nine months is an absurdly short sentence. Nine years would make more sense. And anyone who sells fake ID ought to be treated as an accomplice to any crime committed using the false ID. If someone drives to a bank robbery using a fake driver’s license, the seller of the license should be held responsible.
Remember the woman in the Drivers License bureau in Memphis who mysteriously died in a one-car crash right when it was revealed that she was supplying false IDs to Muslims?
Why do you think the Mexican Gov. gives them maps to the best routes.
They also update them with the current Minuteman operations.
Of course they are. They couldn't make a living there because they are unskilled and/or stupid. So they import their third-world mentality and habits (disregarding traffic laws, littering, 22 people in a 3-bedroom house, chickens running around in the yard, etc...) to our country.
I am soo mexicanned out...
>>I am soo mexicanned out...<<
I have been mexicanned out for the past 30 years!!!
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