Posted on 09/25/2004 8:47:43 AM PDT by Kokojmudd
Traffickers often use fake IDs like those in MVD corruption case By Ignacio Ibarra ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The fake ID scheme uncovered at Arizona Motor Vehicle Division offices highlights challenges border agents have detecting illegal entrants, but a Border Patrol spokesman says the agency is not expecting the case to have a major impact in its local operations.
U.S. Border Patrol officials would not comment on the Motor Vehicle Division case, or any involvement they had in its development. Thirty-four people were indicted Thursday, including 11 current or former MVD employees in Tucson, two former employees in Sierra Vista, two current employees in Douglas and one in Nogales.
Representatives for the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI would not say who received the fake IDs and whether all or some of the IDs were requested by undercover agents. There may be more information that comes out during the trial, said Sandy Raynor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Law enforcement officials believe human- and drug-smugglers were the likely recipients of the IDs as well as people looking to create new credit histories.
Document fraud, particularly involving visas and other immigration documents, is an ongoing problem for agents in the field, particularly at highway checkpoints, said Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman Andy Adame.
"It's tough to spot a bald stock document like that, unless you can actually break the undocumented alien and get him to say: 'Yeah I got this from so and so,' " said Adame. "Because of our nexus here to the border, it's almost always immigration documents we're looking for. With a driver's license, unless the person is clearly an American citizen, who speaks English well, knows U.S. history and can answer the questions we ask, a driver's license is not going to work.
"What we see more is documents like that that are provided to the smuggler and/or guide. They're street smart and know our routines enough to try to pass themselves off as U.S. citizens."
The document fraud most typically encountered involved smugglers buying legitimate visas issued to Mexican nationals and then matching them to individuals close enough in appearance to pass as the original document holders.
"The actual document is usually legitimate, but the person coming across with it is the impostor," he said. "They'll buy these documents from legitimate people, and along with the document they buy the history that goes with the document to answer questions we might ask."
The three-year undercover investigation revealed that MVD employees accepted bribes of up to $3,500 for the state identification cards or driver's licenses.
The licenses, which are real but have phony information, can be used by smugglers to hide their true identity from law enforcement. For instance, an officer making a traffic stop would not be able to discover someone's true criminal history if the ID with the fake name is shown.
While the fake IDs were sold to possible human- and drug- smugglers, U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton said terrorists were not likely recipients of the driver's licenses.
"There is absolutely no indication that any of these individuals aided or abetted a terrorist or terrorists in any way," Charlton said.
The arrests Thursday mark only the latest in a history of problems at the agency and questions about the ease of getting a state driver's license - problems that Gov. Janet Napolitano has known about for years. As recently as last year, investigators from the General Accounting Office, now the Government Accountability Office, reported they got genuine driver licenses from Arizona and six other states using fake identification. That report to Congress did not surprise Napolitano.
"I know that getting a false ID is not difficult in Arizona," the governor said at the time.
"I suspect you can ask almost any 16-year-old, and they would tell you how to get a false ID. The question is what was done here and what can we do to tighten up as much as possible to make sure that, particularly when we're issuing a driver's license, we know to whom we're issuing it."
Napolitano, speaking to reporters when the new arrests were announced Thursday, said changes in the way the agency operates were made in the wake of that report.
But the governor had no answer when asked how, with those changes, this kind of fraud still could occur at several MVD offices.
"Well, I hope we're not sitting here tomorrow with that situation," she said. "But in point of fact, the plan that we are implementing today is much broader and deeper than anything that has, to my knowledge, been attempted with MVD before."
Gubernatorial aide George Cunningham said many of those details were still being worked out.
œ Contact reporter Ignacio Ibarra at 1-520-806-7746 or at iibarra@azstarnet.com œ Star reporters Barrett Marson and Mary Vandeveire and Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services contributed to this story.
Very revealing! also, read-on into the article and take note of the surnames of the accused. What a coincidence, 98% of them are Hispanic! I wonder how many of these fine public servants are illegal aliens? The following Southern Arizonans were indicted on various charges relating to the production and sale of fraudulent driver's licenses and other identification documents: Tucson MVD employees Blanca Garavito, 41 Glenda Garcia, 22 Luz Yolanda Jaramillo, 33 Rebecca Lock, 44 Leticia Sanchez, 37 Santiago Jimmy Valenzuela, 47 Former Tucson MVD employees Sandra Contreras, 28 Susana Galaviz-Nogales, 26 Rebecca Martinez, 39 Angelica Pinales, 30 Deborah Salcido, 32 Former Sierra Vista MVD employees Monique Elzy, 26 Kristie Espinoza, 28 Douglas MVD employees Rafael Escarcega, 48 Joe Saavedra, 47 Former Nogales MVD employee Marissa Zamora, 25 Non-MVD employees Molly Amaro, 32 Christopher Sanchez, 41
What's also amazing is that it comes from what's colloquially known as the "Tucson Red Star".
G_d Damn Jake Napolitano.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.