State Busts Driver’s License Fraud Ring (NM - Richardson legacy)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | June 7, 2012 | Charles D. Brunt

[CedarDave]

A telephone call to the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division from a Brazilian woman living in Georgia helped investigators uncover a complex scheme that state officials say could have resulted in hundreds of New Mexico driver’s licenses being issued to illegal immigrants.

The woman contacted MVD to ask why she had not been not received a permanent license to replace the temporary one she had been issued, District Attorney Matthew Chandler of Clovis said during a news conference here Wednesday.

That inquiry triggered an investigation in which the woman said she paid the ringleader of the scheme $4,000 for a New Mexico driver’s license.

“This is one of the largest and most sophisticated driver’s license fraud rings we have uncovered,” state Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla said at the news conference.

Chandler said the ring – run by a family of Mexican nationals and their colleagues – used eight rented houses in Portales and Clovis over a two-year period to help 54 illegal aliens obtain New Mexico licenses.

Chandler said evidence collected during the investigation indicates hundreds of such licenses could have been issued. Padilla said New Mexico, to date, has issued more than 92,000 licenses to foreign nationals.

“We’re going to go back to the Legislature and we’re going to ask them one more time, ‘Please see the mess that you’ve created for us,’” Padilla said, adding that it has cost the state a huge amount of money to investigate and prosecute such crimes.

[CedarDave]

This article is free to read.

Bears repeating:

Padilla said New Mexico, to date, has issued more than 92,000 licenses to foreign nationals.

The NM House has agreed to a repeal, but the NM Senate, controlled by "progressive" Democrats has blocked repeal last year and this year. NM licenses are used by illegals to get a real driver's license in other states and as identification for air travel.

[CedarDave]

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[CedarDave]

Link to earlier article:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2892484/posts

[Minutemen]

Good for New Mexico! If only we could “trigger” an investigation of our Usurper in Chief.

[SpaceBar]

The jaw dropping part are the democrat state legislators who have been putting up roadblocks in front of Governor Susanna Martinez who is trying to fix it. KKOB’s morning guy Bob Clark said a number of these slugs lost their districts with the exception of Martin Heinrich.

[SpaceBar]

In fact I have pondered these compliant democrat legislators as to their true motives and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if some of them turned out be “motivated” by drug cartels or other criminal elements. There have been a number of high profile busts involving motor vehicle employees, who, for a nominal fee would provide bogus documents. Then there was an episode of COPS a while back where a guy was busted stealing mail, and one of the police commented that it’s a common crime since they then sell the mail to identity theives.

[OldNavyVet]

I know a number of Europeans that lived with American families and worked at places like Disneyland as summer employees ... about thirty years ago.

In those days, it was common practice for those young adults to get off the plane, purchase a used vehicle, get a California driver's license, work for the summer ... and then go home to Europe.

My, how things have changed.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Chandler said the ring – run by a family of Mexican nationals and their colleagues – used eight rented houses in Portales and Clovis over a two-year period to help 54 illegal aliens obtain New Mexico licenses.

Seems like a lot of effort to only help 54 people. Probably need to add a couple of zeroes to that number.

[cicero2k]

It’s this kind of fraud that keeps NM blue. I will never forget elction night 2000 when NM was able to “find” just enough votes, late in the process when 99% of the precincts reported, to give the state to Gore. It violated all statistical theory that a group of ballots in a state that had been running 50-50, is 90-10. The odds against were astronomical.

However, since NM’s EVs did not matter which candidate received them; it was never investigated. Florida is where the action was.