Virginia Couple Arrested over Scheme to Obtain Driver Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Jose Calderon and Noemi Barboza, both 42 and of Sterling, Virginia, were indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on conspiracy and bribery of an employee of a state agency receiving federal assistance.

Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement.

Calderon and Barboza face a maximum penalty of 10 years if convicted.

According to the indictment, from September 2007 to July 2010, the defendants solicited cash payments from undocumented aliens in return for helping them secure Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) documents for which they were not eligible. After the defendants collected cash from ineligible applicants, they provided a DMV employee a portion of the money to induce her to falsely verify that the ineligible applicants had produced documentation necessary to establish eligibility for issuance of the requested DMV documents. The defendants also accompanied ineligible applicants to the DMV Service Center located at the Fair Oaks Mall and directed them to the DMV employee who had accepted bribes.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Rebeca H. Bellows is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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