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Two People Charged with Selling Real Identities to Illegal Workers
December 14th, 2006 @ 5:50pm

John Daley Reporting

Federal authorities call the sweep of meat-packing plants in Utah and elsewhere an operation aimed at cracking down on identity theft.

And today, they charged two people with illegally selling documents.

The two arrested were not workers at the plant, but are accused of business dealings with workers. They're alleged to have sold citizenship papers

According to court papers, federal authorities believe the pair are document dealers--selling real US birth certificates and coinciding social security cards.

Authorities arrested 145 people in Hyrum at the Swift plant as part of a six-state operation in which nearly 13-hundred people were rounded up. And today they unsealed a criminal complaint charging two people with four counts--sale of citizenship papers and aggravated identity theft.

The Justice Department says Veronica Carillo, who is now in the Weber County Jail, is a Mexican national living in Logan.

The other suspect, Elecuterio Gutierrez, with an El Paso, Texas mailing address is a US citizen, and is currently a fugitive.

Julie Myers, ICE Assistant Secretary: "Instead of obtaining fraudulent documents with fraudulent identities, illegal aliens are buying genuine documents with real identities."

The federal raids on Tuesday focused on plants operated by Colorado-based Swift and Company after immigration agents noticed a trend.

Julie Myers, ICE Assistant Secretary: "They kept on interviewing criminal aliens who said they worked at Swift and who admitted that they had assumed identities, other's identities, in order to circumvent employment eligibility screening."

An Eyewitness News investigation two years ago uncovered the buying and selling of phony social security cards in Salt Lake that looked like the real thing.

In this week's case, court papers describe an undercover sting involving real documents.

An informant "made arrangements" with Vernoica Carrillo "to purchase two US birth certificates and coinciding social security cards for a cost of 14-hundred dollars."

Authorities allege Carrillo obtained social security cards and birth certificates by mail from the Texas suspect Eleuterio Gutierrez, who was getting them from Illinois and Texas.

As part of the investigation, the informant "was wired with a body transmitting wire and button video camera" and Carrillo told the informant she'd "sold over 300 US birth certificates in the past."

The spokesperson for Utah's US Attorney's Office says the investigation continues, and others could be charged later.

The charges unsealed today will soon be presented to federal grand jury. [/b]