Posted on 11/09/2001 3:49:22 AM PST by tom paine 2
A Senegal national apparently in violation of his student visa is the subject of local and federal investigations after he was arrested in Greendale with a car full of suspected stolen mail and false identification materials, a prosecutor said Thursday.
"He had a mass of information about other people's identities in his car," said Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Phillip A. Arieff. "He's obviously part of a large network and has no connections here."
According to a criminal complaint:
Pape T. Dlop was posing as a San Diego man when he was arrested Oct. 22 at Southridge Mall for using phony identification cards to purchase jewelry. Authorities subsequently learned that he had earlier purchased jewelry in Brookfield using bogus identification.
Dlop, 18, was charged with forgery, theft of identification and possession of marijuana, but is of greater interest to authorities because of the undelivered mail and phony identification materials found in his car.
Arieff said that investigators from the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. postal inspector were notified and have begun probing Dlop's activities.
His arrest is the latest example of why authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about identity theft. This summer area law enforcement officials formed the Milwaukee Area Identity Theft Task Force to establish protocol for prosecuting people who are coming up with more ways to misuse people's identities to commit crime.
"It's the fastest growing crime by far," said Milwaukee County Deputy District Attorney Robert D. Donohoo, a task force member.
Earlier this week, a convicted robber was accused of heading an identity theft ring from within the walls of the Waupun Correctional Institution. In August, a Milwaukee woman was arrested on charges of stealing the identities of hundreds of hospital patients to illegally establish gas, electric, telephone and cable television service for herself and others.
Among the phony identification materials found in Dlop's car were driver's licenses from Maryland and Pennsylvania and a City University of New York identification card, all bearing his likeness, according to the complaint. Police also found "several pages of names and Social Security numbers," the complaint says.
"The Secret Service has been apprised of the many suspicious pieces of evidence found" in Dlop's car, the complaint says. Authorities suspect that the undelivered "numerous quantities of mail and other bills addressed to other individuals" were to be used to generate additional fraudulent identification, the complaint says.
On Wednesday, defense attorney John Sesini tried to persuade Circuit Judge Daniel L. Konkol to halve the $10,000 bail for Dlop, saying he has a fiancee eight months pregnant and was in the area to be closer to a brother who has lived here for six months. Sesini also said that Dlop was planning to attend the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha.
Arieff noted that because Dlop was here on a student visa and not attending school, he appears to be violating his visa. Because of the allegations against him and the mystery surrounding the material in his car, Dlop's bail deserved to be raised, according to Arieff.
Konkol agreed and increased it to $100,000. Dlop was being held in the County Jail Thursday and is due back in Circuit Court on Dec. 12.
So what? Try the guy, sentence him, send him to prison, and then deport him. Good riddance.
You have sharp eyes, my friend. Hope the law enforcement people pursuing this case have equally sharp eyes.
Their primary focus are the ones that appear to be terrorist related.....not all the students wiith expired visas....I believe everyone could agree that the resources should be focused there first.....
In the past, the US gov actually encouraged students to stay beyond their Visa expiration in the past by turning a blind eye to the violaters....
The real problem is being quietly and quickly resolved although a dragnet will never catch them all.......
NeverGore
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