Six members of a St Joseph family are among 14 suspects named charged with conspiring to provide more than 3,500 fraudulent identity documents to illegal immigrants across the country.
US Attorney for Western Missouri Beth Phillips said the defendants recruited illegal immigrants to pick up bogus drivers licenses at the License Office in St Joseph in a five million dollar conspiracy.
“St. Joseph was the hub of a criminal conspiracy for thousands of illegal aliens who traveled to Missouri from across the country,” Phillips said.
“Conspirators operated a vast black market where identities were bought and sold.”
In an interview, Phillips said approximately 3,500 drivers licenses and non-driver state IDs were issued to illegal immigrants across the country. If those individuals are located, Phillips says they face arrest and possible deportation.
Phillips says there is no evidence of wrongdoing at the license office. “We did not include charges or any allegations against anyone in the license office,” she said.
“The indictment does not contain any information to suggest that the license office was aware of the conspiracy or participated in the conspiracy in any way.”
The operator of the St Joseph office is attorney James Montee, the former husband of Missouri Democratic Party Chair and former State Auditor Susan Montee.
In addition to the conspiracy, the federal indictment charges various defendants in five counts of transporting illegal aliens, eight counts of unlawfully producing identification documents, nine counts of unlawfully transferring another person’s identification, eight counts of Social Security fraud and nine counts of aggravated identity theft. The indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require the defendants to forfeit to the government any property obtained from the proceeds of the alleged offenses, including a money judgment of $5,250,000.
“The individuals involved in this conspiracy orchestrated an extensive identity fraud scheme on a grand scale,” said Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations office in Chicago.
“Troopers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and investigators from the Missouri Department of Revenue were part of this state-federal-local investigation of conspirators who allegedly assisted illegal immigrants attempting to obtain identity documents fraudulently,” Missouri Department of Public Safety Director Jerry Lee said. “Today, that law enforcement partnership resulted in arrests in Missouri and Texas.”
Deborah J. Flores, 46, her sister, Sherri E. Gutierrez, 45, and Flores’s children, Stephen Eugene Vanvacter, 24, Sara M. Gonzalez, 20, Christina Michelle Gonzalez, 23, and Jessica Mercedes Gonzalez, 21, all of St. Joseph; Elder Enrique Ordonez-Chanas, also known as “Flaco,” 30, Nelson Dariseo Bautista-Orozco, 26, and Ranfe Adaias Hernandez-Flores, also known as “Miguel,” 22, all citizens of Guatemala residing in Carthage; Brenda De La Cruz, 32, of San Antonio, Texas; Martin Alejandro Llanas-Rodriguez, 29, and Julio Cesar Llanas-Rodrigues, both citizens of Mexico residing in San Antonio; Martin Lara-Rodriguez, 31, a citizen of Mexico residing in Chicago, Ill.; and Luis Adalberto Felipe-Lopez (identified in the indictment as “Joel LNU”), age unknown, a citizen of Guatemala residing in Mt. Olive, N. Carolina, were charged in a 40-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. The indictment was unsealed and made public today upon the arrests and initial court appearances of several defendants.
The federal indictment alleges that all of the defendants have participated in a conspiracy since November 2009 to transport illegal aliens, to unlawfully produce identification documents, to unlawfully transfer another person’s identification and to commit Social Security fraud.
In order to obtain a Missouri driver’s or non-driver’s license, applicants are required to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, which may be shown by a certified birth certificate. Applicants must also provide proof of their Social Security number and proof of a Missouri residential address. Conspirators allegedly provided illegal aliens with birth certificates and Social Security cards in the names of others and provided them with Missouri residential addresses.
The indictment alleges that illegal aliens would travel to St. Joseph from across the United States to obtain either a Missouri driver’s license or non-driver’s license by using the unlawfully obtained birth certificate and Social Security cards. The state licenses could then be used by the illegal aliens to remain unlawfully in the United States, to unlawfully obtain employment and for other unlawful purposes.
It is estimated that more than 3,500 licenses were issued to illegal aliens by the Department of Revenue license office in St. Joseph, according to the indictment. Illegal aliens each paid $1,500 to $1,600 to obtain documents and a license, the indictment says, totaling more than $5,250,000 in gross proceeds paid by illegal aliens to members of the conspiracy.
According to the indictment, some of the conspirators recruited illegal aliens as customers for fraudulent identification documents and then directed the illegal aliens to travel to St. Joseph to receive them. Sometimes conspirators provided transportation to St. Joseph, the indictment says.
Phillips says the scheme begins in Texas, where suspects allegedly bought birth certificates and Social Security cards, typically from residents willing to sell them. The indictment says the documents were then mailed to St Joseph or Carthage, and then given to the illegal immigrants when they arrived. The St Joseph defendants allegedly collected payment from the illegal aliens.
The St. Joseph defendants then allegedly accompanied illegal aliens into the local license office under the guise of being translators in order to assist them with obtaining a state license that was in the name of another person. The St. Joseph defendants instructed and assisted the illegal aliens to practice memorizing the information on the birth certificates and Social Security cards, the indictment says, and to practice signing the name so that the signatures would be similar. They also helped the illegal aliens prepare for potential questions from the license office employees, according to the indictment.
Flores and Vanvacter are the owners of A to Z Auto Credit LLC, a used car dealership in St. Joseph. According to the indictment, they used the business bank account to transfer funds among conspirators and as a mailing address to receive some of the mailed documents.
According to court documents, Martin and Julio Llanas-Rodriguez, Ordonez-Chanas, Bautista-Orozco, Hernandez-Flores, Lara-Rodriguez and Felipe-Lopez are unlawfully present in the United States. Martin Llanas-Rodriguez and Felipe-Lopez have both previously been deported.
Phillips cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.