Thread: VA-Man gets 30 months for selling license plates to Illegals

Man gets 30 months for selling license plates to Illegals
Posted to: Crime News Eastern Shore

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 19, 2008
NORFOLK

A Guatemalan national who says he fled political persecution and a threat of execution in his native country to start a new life in America was sentenced Thursday to 2-1/2 years in federal prison for selling hundreds of out-of-state license plates to illegal immigrants on the Eastern Shore.

Authorities said at a sentencing hearing Thursday that they have linked 56 automobile accidents, including five fatalities, to vehicles with license plates sold by the defendant, Felipe Jesus Mazariegos-Perez, 44.

The operation, which Mazariegos-Perez ran from his trailer in Nelsonia in Accomack County for at least six years, netted him more than $200,000, an estimate the U.S. attorney's office says is conservative.

The authorities, including the FBI, the Virginia State Police and immigration agents, found only a little more than $2,000 in the trailer when they arrested Mazariegos-Perez and his wife earlier this year. They don't know where the rest of the money went.

Mazariegos-Perez's wife, Elvia Elizabel Soto-Ortiz, 26, was sentenced Thursday to nine months in prison for her role in the scheme.

The couple, both of whom face deportation, have five American-born children who will now be living with relatives, the attorneys in the case said.

Based in part on a Virginian-Pilot investigation in 2005, the authorities launched their own inquiry into the heightened number of vehicles with out-of-state plates, mostly from Tennessee and Mississippi, involved in serious crashes.

While investigating a prostitution ring on the Eastern Shore, the authorities were able to get informants to record conversations with Mazariegos-Perez and his wife about the sales of license plates.

After Virginia tightened its vehicle registration requirements, making it difficult for illegal immigrants to title cars, the migrant workers turned to states such as Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina and Georgia where it was easier to register cars under phony names. Mazariegos-Perez would drive to those states to buy the plates.

In many of the crashes, the drivers and passengers fled the scene, leaving no way for state troopers to trace the driver or vehicle owner.

Mazariegos-Perez, 44, who has been in the country for 22 years, said in court that he seeks forgiveness from residents of the Eastern Shore for his actions.

"I want to apologize," he told U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson through an interpreter. "During the time I have been in jail, I've come to recognize my mistakes."

Mazariegos-Perez has a long history of traffic and misdemeanor offenses but has been in the country legally.

His attorney, Richard Colgan, an assistant federal public defender, argued for a more lenient sentence, saying that his client was only providing a service to the undocumented migrant farm workers and never intended to cause any harm.

Colgan placed part of the blame on "contradictory" immigration policies where a blind eye is turned to undocumented immigrant workers yet those same workers are not given any legal way to drive.

Jackson wouldn't hear it.

"The court will not make that connection," the judge said.

Colgan also argued for leniency based on Mazariegos-

Perez's difficult upbringing. Taken from his mother at the age of 3, he lived on the streets beginning at age 7 and was imprisoned and threatened with execution in Guatemala as a teenager for joining an anti-government group, Colgan said in a court filing. He fled the country after his release.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Moore argued for a stiffer sentence than federal guidelines called for, and the judge granted the request.

"The State Police could not do anything proactive to stop this practice," he said. "They're stuck with the aftermath of these problems."

Special Agent Albert R. Ashley of the State Police testified at the sentencing that accidents continue to occur on the Eastern Shore involving vehicles with license plates traced to Mazariegos-Perez.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com

http://hamptonroads.com/node/491971

Guatemalan national... FYI, national is code for illegal alien.

Colgan placed part of the blame on "contradictory" immigration policies where a blind eye is turned to undocumented immigrant workers yet those same workers are not given any legal way to drive.

There aren't any contradictory policies only people who don't abide by the laws. One farmer, paid the illegal alien to work. That's not policies, that's two crooked men. The policies say illegal aliens can't have a license. Once again, that's not contradictory policies, it's just two crooked men.

We need to crack down on the Americans who are breaking the law, by aiding and harboring illegal aliens and that would end most of our problems.

Dixie

The authorities, including the FBI, the Virginia State Police and immigration agents, found only a little more than $2,000 in the trailer when they arrested Mazariegos-Perez and his wife earlier this year. They don't know where the rest of the money went


The couple, both of whom face deportation, have five American-born children who will now be living with relatives, the attorneys in the case said



Well sure.....let's just deport them back to their home country where all of the money which can't be found is just sitting there waiting for them


I swear....have all of these people gone simultaneously brain dead or what?

Five U.S. born anchor babies probably all paid for by taxpayers. Why are these people not being identified and deported before they give birth here?

"I want to apologize," he told U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson through an interpreter.

22 years and he still doesn't speak English.