Guilty plea in drivers license case
Friday, August 24, 2007
By BRENDAN KIRBY
Staff Reporter

An Uzbeki man who overstayed a visa pleaded guilty in Mobile on Thursday to federal charges that he participated in a scheme to sell fake drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

Law enforcement authorities say that an employee of the Mississippi drivers license center in Tupelo, Miss., produced the counterfeit IDs using the state equipment. As a result, the fakes were indistinguishable from genuine licenses.

Davon Gayupov, 29, is the only member of the alleged conspiracy to plead guilty. A preliminary calculation of advisory sentencing guidelines suggests that he faces 10 to 16 months in prison, followed by deportation.

Defense lawyer Arthur Madden said his client was working as a painter at a Mississippi casino when his visa expired. Gayupov learned from a co-worker that he could obtain a drivers license through the co-worker's wife, who worked in the license office, Madden said.

Gayupov told U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose that he paid $1,800 -- plus the normal $40 fee charged by the state -- for the license. He then started referring others.

"He was a customer, and that's how he got in it," Madden said.

Melissa Marizette-Green, the drivers license employee, and her husband, Alfred Green, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Madden said Green told Gayupov he could keep $200 for each $2,000 fee paid by illegal immigrants whom he referred. Gayupov helped a friend working at a Mobile shipyard get a license, Madden said, and that friend, Marcos Martinez, then recruited others.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daryl Atchison said Martinez sent a group of people -- including people secretly working as government informants -- to meet Gayupov in Gulfport in June. From there, the prosecutor said, Gayupov drove them to Tupelo. Atchison said Martinez previously had sent

Marizette-Green information about the customers' heights, weights, and hair and eye colors.

Green served as a lookout while Marizette-Green produced licenses that blended physical information about the illegal immigrants with fictitious addresses, Atchison said.

Martinez faces trial in October. His lawyer, Cindy Powell, said her client insists he referred just one person to Gayupov and did not receive any money.

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