By Bill Dries
dries@gomemphis.com
The arrest in Memphis of six suspects Wednesday on charges they were getting driver's licenses fraudulently is an isolated incident, officials with the Tennessee Department of Safety said Thursday.
Wanda Adams, assistant director of driver licensing for the Department of Safety, said she knew of only one other case of a license examiner's involvement in issuing fraudulent licenses, and it happened two years ago in Davidson County.
Roland Colson, executive assistant to Safety Commissioner Denny King, declined to talk about specific measures in place to guard against such fraud.
"The more that we tell you on ways or methods that we check to find out what people are doing, the more they are going to know about how to go about getting around those methods," Colson said. "This particular person was caught . . . The mechanism that we've got in place did work."
The Criminal Investigations Division of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which is part of the Department of Safety, worked with the Memphis FBI on the case.
Among those charged in the federal complaint filed this week was Katherine Smith, a driver's license examiner at the license testing station at 6340 Summer.
Smith, an examiner for nine years, is accused of issuing licenses for suspect Kahled Odtllah which he then sold for $1,000 or more apiece, according to the charges.
An FBI affidavit filed with Wednesday's criminal complaint said Smith didn't require any proof of Tennessee residency as she issued licenses Tuesday for three men "from the Mid-East, who were illegally in the United States" and drove to Memphis from New York to get the licenses.
Odtllah and co-defendant Sakhera Hammad, described by the affidavit as another middleman, were also at the testing station and were arrested later that morning with the others.
The case began with a tip from a New York FBI agent who said a confidential informant told him of the trip to Memphis for the licenses.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal agents have paid closer attention to allegations of identity theft and identity fraud. Prosecutors are not commenting on whether they believe there were any terrorist motives involved in Tuesday's arrests.
- Bill Dries: 529-2643
February 8, 2002
Probably because there aren't any.
According to an FBI complaint filed Wednesday, illegal aliens Mohammed Fares, Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin and Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad drove from New York to obtain licenses.
Prepare to see outcry of "profiling." Could these guys be trying to get on the voters rolls to help Al carry his home state in the next election?
Nothing to see here....Move along....