Thread: Mexican nationals sentenced

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/71456

Last of Mexican nationals sentenced
The four were among a group of 11 convicted in a Botetourt County bank scam.
By Lindsey Nair
981-3343

The last of 11 Mexican nationals convicted of scamming Botetourt County banks out of thousands of dollars were sentenced Tuesday in federal court.

U.S. District Judge James Turk sentenced Jose Ismael Quevedo-Guardado to almost six years in prison, while brothers Jose Tovar-Pena and Antonio Tovar-Pena each received a four-year sentence for bank fraud.

Hector Cruz-Hernandez, who could have gotten just as much time as Quevedo-Guardado and the Tovar-Penas, was sentenced to time served in exchange for cooperating with the federal government.

All of the defendants have been jailed since their arrests in March 2005 except Antonio Tovar-Pena, who was arrested in November in Pennsylvania.

According to court documents, the accused are almost all illegal immigrants who were recruited in their home city of San Vicente, Mexico, and smuggled across the border to commit crimes in the United States. They range in age from 21 to 53.

Officials say the men posed as job applicants at construction companies during the day, then came back after nightfall to break in and steal blank payroll checks from the bottom of the stack.

Four construction companies in Southwest Virginia were burglarized by the cell, court records show, including Scott-Gallaher Inc. of Botetourt County.

After stealing the checks, the defendants would travel to a safe house in Nashville, Tenn., and make them out to aliases that matched fake identification they had obtained. They then drove back to Virginia and cashed the checks for between $900 and $1,000 each.

A Bank of Botetourt teller became suspicious after the group cashed some Scott-Gallaher checks March 4. When the defendants returned March 7, the teller contacted the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office and 10 of the defendants were arrested.

A third Tovar-Pena brother, Arturo, has been charged by criminal complaint with illegal re-entry into the United States by a convicted felon, but the complaint also identifies him as a participant in the criminal cell. He remains at large.

Jose Luis Santillan-Rodriguez, Carlos Ruiz-Rocha and Manuel Lopez-Perez were all sentenced to one year and one day. Arnoldo Munguia-Verdusco received one year and 15 days, while Alejandra Aragon-Macias was sentenced to one year and two days.

Under immigration code, if an immigrant is convicted of an aggravated felony and sentenced to more than one year in prison, they may be immediately deported if they ever enter the United States again.

Ernesto Navarro-Segovia and Ivan Paul Sanchez were sentenced to time served.

All but Sanchez, a permanent resident of the United States, will likely be deported once they have served their time.

They're just "doing jobs American criminals won't do"!!!!