Concrete Worker Pleads Guilty in Wichita


May 17, 2011


A concrete worker employed by Cornejo & Sons, who was arrested in March for trying to gain entry to McConnell Air Force Base using a false identity, has pleaded guilty to using fraudulent identification documents; U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said a second person also pleaded guilty to document fraud in a separate case.

The Cornejo employee is 34-year-old Jose Luis Sanchez-Martinez, a Mexican national unlawfully in the United States who has worked for Cornejo since 2003; he was arrested March 3 by Air Force security personnel, who determined Sanchez-Martinez was using a false identity when he reported to the base to do contract work for Cornejo. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) responded, taking custody of Sanchez-Martinez.

Sanchez-Martinez pleaded guilty in federal court in Wichita to document fraud before U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten, who set sentencing in the case for Aug. 4.

A plea agreement in the case calls for a sentence of one year in federal prison, to be followed by deportation. Once deported, Sanchez-Martinez is banned for life from the United States.

In the second case, 41-year-old Efrain Rolando Pomaquiza, an Ecuadoran national unlawfully present in the U.S., pleaded guilty to document fraud, and faces an agreed sentence of one year in federal prison followed by deportation. Pomaquiza was arrested in Wichita March 2 while trying to obtain a Kansas commercial drivers license using a false Puerto Rican identity. That case was investigated by the Kansas Department of Revenue, HSI, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General.

Cornejo and Sons is one of several employers who do contract work on site at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita. Within the past year, five employees from four different companies have been prosecuted who were caught at McConnell. Investigations related to falsely-document aliens gaining access to the base are ongoing.

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