2 arrested in Calif. driver's license scheme

By The Associated Press
Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 8:56 a.m.

LOS ANGELES — Two men have been arrested in what authorities describe as an elaborate scheme to help illegal immigrants from Korea and China obtain California driver's licenses using doctored Canadian passports.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says 49-year-old Dae Wahn Ahn and 47-year-old Chong Hwan Kim were arrested Wednesday and charged with manufacturing false documents, using false documents to conceal citizenship, perjury, forgery, conspiracy and false personation.

Immigration authorities say the men charged more than 200 illegal immigrants between $3,500 and $5,000 to help them obtain driver's licenses in Kern County.

Authorities began investigating in January 2010 after a Department of Motor Vehicles employee reported irregularities in a Canadian passport where new biographic pages had been inserted and the photograph replaced.

Ahn and Kim face arraignment Friday in state court in Bakersfield.

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