Man pleads guilty in illegal documents scheme
Posted Wednesday, Mar. 24, 2010

Tags: official receiver, pleaded guilty

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By DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.

ramirez@star-telegram.com

A man who was involved in a fraudulent document scheme with a supervisor in the Texas driver's license division has pleaded guilty to the charge just weeks before his federal trial was scheduled to begin in Dallas.

Ruben Gomez-Luevano, a Mexican native, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Dallas to conspiracy to transfer stolen and unlawfully issued identification documents.

Gomez-Luevano who has been in custody since his arrest in January 2009 will be sentenced on June 21. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Former Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Alavaro Ivan Adame, 41, of Wichita Falls, and Reyes David Martinez, 36, of Dallas, have pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme and have been sentenced. Martinez was sentenced in July for time served, but details were not available today.

Adame was sentenced to five years probation in December and he resigned from DPS. The 21-year-old DPS veteran also relinquished his Texas peace officer's license.

Adame helped Gomez-Luevano to avoid arrest and deportation, according to federal court documents. The former DPS official received money from the defendant for helping undocumented immigrants clear fines they owed to the DPS, records stated.

According to the federal documents, Gomez-Luevano admitted that from 2003 until his arrest that he helped the immigrants obtain New Mexico identification cards and driver's licenses illegally and exchange them for Texas ones. Martinez was hired in 2008 by Gomez-Luevano to help him, records show. Immigrants paid Gomez-Luevano $1,500 to $2,500 for the Texas licenses, according to records.

Gomez-Luevano and Martinez would take the immigrants to the DPS in the Dallas area including an office managed by Adame to get their Texas driver's license or identification cards with their fraudulent New Mexico documents, court records stated.


http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/24 ... ments.html