Posted on 04/30/2008 4:03:29 AM PDT by csvset
NORFOLK
A Guatemalan national made it easy for illegal immigrants on the Eastern Shore to drive, according to the FBI.
The FBI arrested Felipe Jesus Mazariegos-Perez at his home Tuesday on federal charges of buying hundreds of Tennessee and Mississippi license plates and car titles and selling them to immigrants who cannot prove their residency, as Virginia requires.
The FBI raided Mazariegos-Perez's home in Nelsonia, Accomack County, on Tuesday morning, looking for the out-of-state plates and titles. He was arrested and taken into U.S. District Court that afternoon, where a magistrate ordered him jailed pending a bond hearing Thursday.
Mazariegos-Perez, speaking through an interpreter, told the judge he could not afford to hire his own lawyer. His wife, Elvia Elizabel Soto-Ortiz, also was charged, but she was allowed to turn herself in by Monday.
The FBI has been investigating Felipe Perez, as he is known, for more than a year and a half, and following reports in The Virginian-Pilot in October 2005 of a swell of car crashes, some fatal, involving unlicensed, undocumented Hispanics driving cars with Tennessee plates.
The agents were led to Mazariegos-Perez, who turns 44 today, after breaking up an Eastern Shore prostitution ring that catered to Hispanic migrant workers, an FBI agent said in a court affidavit unsealed Tuesday. Several people convicted in that case as well as other illegal immigrants became cooperating witnesses in the Perez matter, the affidavit says.
In 2003, the Virginia State Police actually caught Mazariegos-Perez with 19 new Tennessee license plates and 31 new vehicle titles but never charged him.
He "claimed it was common knowledge among people in the area that vehicle titles and license plates can be easily obtained in Tennessee," the agent wrote in the affidavit. The case wasn't pursued again until fall 2006.
After Tennessee tightened up its requirements for obtaining plates and titles, Mazariegos-Perez switched to Mississippi, where identification requirements are more lax, according to the FBI.
The FBI said it learned through the witnesses that Mazariegos-Perez was charging $300 to $350 per set of license plates, but that his price increased to $450 as of January, the FBI affidavit says.
About twice a month, he would drive to Mississippi to pick up orders delivered to two post office boxes he rented there, the papers say.
The FBI said he typically used phony Social Security numbers and false names.
One witness told the FBI he saw 50 to 100 license plates in Mazariegos-Perez's trailer one day in 2006, the FBI said. In one deal about a year ago, Mazariegos-Perez sold five sets of license plates and titles to an individual for $1,010, the agent said in the affidavit.
Undocumented Hispanic drivers have been a menace on Eastern Shore roads for years, according to statistics and past interviews.
Thirteen fatal accidents between 2002 and 2005 involved Hispanic workers, most without insurance, and six of the vehicles involved bore Tennessee tags, according to a Virginian-Pilot investigation in 2005.
"It has contributed to a large volume of vehicular accidents involving illegal immigrants with poor driving skills and no automobile insurance, and many people have been seriously injured or killed," the agent wrote in the affidavit.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on the case.
The couple face as much as 10 years in prison each if convicted.
Soto-Ortiz, suspected of being in the country illegally, also faces possible deportation. Mazariegos-Perez's immigration status could not be verified Tuesday.
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
“In 2003, the Virginia State Police actually caught Mazariegos-Perez with 19 new Tennessee license plates and 31 new vehicle titles but never charged him.”
And every one of these VSP members should not be fired for what reason?
I believe this is the article that sparked the investigation:
Harvest of death on the Eastern Shore
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=93408&ran=120909
They sat on this for a year and a half and let more innocent American citizens and children die? Round him and his family up if for nothing else than being illegal and I'm sure they would have found enough evidence during the arrest.
And how many children had to die after that 2003 arrest?
Ping.
FYI
Ping.
$300 to $400 per plate. Follow the money. I bet he never paid any income taxes on this money so there is another crime. My bet is that there are others he won’t get charged with as well because “It’s just to damn hard” Lazy DA’s in my opinion.
Probably getting several SS checks and EITC refunds in differrent names....plus multiple UI, Workmen's Comp, and welfare checks. Also registered to vote under several identities in several precincts.
They have been intimidated to do NOTHING.
Illegals here are everywhere and the State of MD will issue Drivers Lic to anyone who speaks Spanish without the same ID we mere Citizens must provide.
The Invasion helped from within is running full force here.MS 13 graffiti is common,and American citizens are dying - slaughtered on our very own streets. Welcome to small town USA.
Most of them probably work in the Perdue chicken plants. Big agribusiness intimidates local officials everywhere to keep their cheap labor. I wish one of these companies would get slapped with a $100 million civil suit by the family of someone killed by one of these illegal drivers. That's the only thing that will stop them.
DelMarVa PING!!!!!!!
The FBI raided Mazariegos-Perez's home in Nelsonia, Accomack County, on Tuesday morning,....
I spent nearly all day in Nelsonia yesterday, that's where the Moose Lodge is, and I heard not a word about this.....
“In 2003, the Virginia State Police actually caught Mazariegos-Perez with 19 new Tennessee license plates and 31 new vehicle titles but never charged him.
He “claimed it was common knowledge among people in the area that vehicle titles and license plates can be easily obtained in Tennessee,” the agent wrote in the affidavit. The case wasn’t pursued again until fall 2006.
Thirteen fatal accidents between 2002 and 2005 involved Hispanic workers, most without insurance, and six of the vehicles involved bore Tennessee tags, according to a Virginian-Pilot investigation in 2005.”
They knew he was trouble 5 years ago and let him go on ! How many Americans dead because some bureaucrats refused to do their jobs?
Five Men with Mideast Ties Indicted in License Scam (Tennessee License Scandal)
TENN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS
Car fire set off suspicions as crew fought it (Smith Tennesee License Scandal)
License suspect had WTC repair pass, but Port Authority did its own work [Tennessee License Scandal]
The pass gave him access to the buildings' sprinkler systems.
I bet he "fixed" them real good...
Treason is not too strong a word.
Tell me about it. I have been nearly run off the road more times than I care to remember by these cretins. One time we were run off the road, and had two 9 year olds (our daughter and a friend) in the back seat.
One needs the skill of a NASCAR driver to survive the roads in Accomack County.
ping
Fishing company operator sentenced to jail for hiring illegal immigrants
NORFOLK
The vice president of a Newport News fishing company was sentenced today to 90 days in prison on top of nearly $7 million in fines and forfeitures that she and her company have agreed to pay to settle charges that the company employed illegal immigrants on its vessels.
Yvonne Michelle Peabody, who runs the day-to-day operations of the Peabody Corp., previously pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges and has cooperated with the government in several other criminal matters, including a drug case, a prosecutor said.
U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson also sentenced her to 120 days of home detention with electronic monitoring after her release from custody and ordered her to pay a $50,000 fine.
Her father and company founder, William F. Peabody, who is semi-retired, was sentenced as well today, but Jackson spared him jail time as he had a relatively minor role in the crimes. He was sentenced to 150 days of home confinement, three years of probation and a $100,000 fine.
The company agreed to pay $6.75 million in fines and forfeitures, which represents the profits earned over a four-year period while employing more than 125 illegal immigrants to work their fishing vessels.
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