Thread: Utah woman charged with selling birth certificates to illega

http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.as ... 79a8ee6eb2

By ED WHITE
Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A northern Utah woman told an undercover informant that she had sold more than 300 birth certificates to create identities, according to charges unsealed Thursday in federal court. Veronica Carrillo was arrested at a Logan apartment Tuesday, the same day that more than 100 people were arrested in an illegal-immigration investigation at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Hyrum, 10 miles south of Logan.

"She does not work at Swift," said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Salt Lake City. "However, we believe she may have provided documents to some of the employees working there." Carrillo, 41, a Mexican national, was charged with identity theft and the sale of citizenship papers. She was ordered to jail to await trial. An arraignment was set for Dec. 21. Carrillo's lawyer, Michael Jaenish, did not immediately return an Associated Press call seeking comment left after regular business hours.

Eleuterio Gutierrez of El Paso, Texas, was also charged but has not been found, Rydalch said. Authorities began investigating Carrillo on Nov. 1 after a tipster said she was selling birth certificates and Social Security numbers, immigration agent Greg McClune said in an affidavit. An informant wired with video and audio devices met with Carrillo a week later and agreed to pay $1,400 for two birth certificates and Social Security cards, McClune said. The documents were shipped from Texas and intercepted Nov. 14 by postal inspectors, who made copies and sent the envelope to Carrillo in Logan,

McClune said. Inspectors subsequently intercepted more envelopes from Texas. "Carrillo told the (informant) that she has sold over 300 U.S. birth certificates in the past," McClune said in his affidavit. Meanwhile, in Cache County, some of the 58 people charged with forgery and identity theft appeared Thursday in 1st District Court. They were among the 100 people arrested at the Swift plant, part of a federal sweep at meatpacking factories in six states.

Throw her in jail with no contact to outside civilization so she can't work or give orders to others from prison. Let her be what we refer to as a coffin case; those who walk into prison and get taken out in a coffin. No parole or release on this one.

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http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=48814

Logan woman pleads guilty in illicit immigrant-related I.D. trade
By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 07/17/2007 04:33:12 PM MDT


Posted: 4:36 PM- A Logan woman has pleaded guilty today to selling birth certificates and Social Security cards to undocumented immigrants -- some of them workers at a raided Utah meat plant.
Veronica Carrillo faces up to 10 years in prison on the first count of selling citizenship papers and a mandatory two years tacked onto the end of that term for the ID theft.
In addition, the 42-year-old Mexican national will be deported after serving her time.
Sentencing before U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell in Salt Lake City is scheduled for Oct. 4.
The charges against Carrillo stemmed from a nationwide investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into possible identity fraud.
That same probe led to raids in December at six Swift & Co. plants, including Hyrum. Almost 1,300 workers were detained, approximately 150 of them in Utah. Carrillo, who did not work at Swift, was detained the same day.
As part of a plea deal, she admitted that she sold two birth certificates and two Social Security cards sent to her from Texas late last year to a government informant. The informant paid $1,400 for the four documents.
In one conversation, Carrillo told the informant that she has sold more than 300 U.S. birth cerficates in the past.
Her co-defendant, Eleuterio Gutierrez, a 48-year-old U.S. citizen who was living in El Paso, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of sale of citizenship papers. He is slated to be sentenced Aug. 21.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6396738

Mexican document dealer sentenced to prison
By Geoffrey Fattah
Deseret Morning News
Published: October 28, 2007
A Mexican national was sentenced this week to more than two years in federal prison for supplying stolen citizenship documents and information to workers at a Hyrum, Cache County, meat-packing plant, which was later raided by federal agents as part of a nationwide operation against illegal-immigrant workers.
Led into court in a blue jumpsuit with her hands and feet bound in chains, Veronica Carrillo sat calmly as she listened through a Spanish interpreter to her sentence for selling naturalization or citizenship papers.

U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said that, under the charge, he was required to sentence Carrillo to a mandatory two years in federal prison on top of any other prison time. Carrillo faced a total of 36 months, but Cassell determined 29 months was more appropriate.

Through an interpreter, Carrillo asked the court to consider her children and her poor health. "I will leave the country and never come back again," she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Kennedy said Carrillo was a "major supplier" of fraudulent citizenship documents, which she and Eleuterio Gutierrez sold to the workers at the Swift & Co. plant. The plant was raided by federal agents last December, and 158 people were arrested. The raid was part of a larger operation involving Swift plants across the country, in which 1,297 people were taken into custody.

Kennedy said people whose identities were stolen have found out that their personal information was used several times by people across the United States, creating chaos.

Carrillo, who is in the country illegally, also has been ordered to never enter the United States illegally when she completes her sentence.

Gutierrez, who also has pleaded guilty in a plea deal with prosecutors, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1%2C5143 ... %2C00.html