Thread: Licenses Illegally Issued to Illegals in Fl

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southfl ... 39095.html

BY ELIOT KLEINBERG
Palm Beach Post
In the end it was the suspects' sloppiness and vanity that was their undoing, prosecutors say. They deliberately ignored obvious mistakes on documents, and they bought expensive cars and designer clothes that they couldn't afford on their salaries.

Those actions, investigators say, tripped up the state examiners charged with taking perhaps millions of dollars in bribes to issue driver's licenses to at least 1,500 undocumented migrants.

Ten people -- four examiners at the license bureau in Delray Beach and six others who recruited them -- have been or soon will be arrested, the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office said. The 10 include two examiners who were charged when the ring was broken in May and who face new conspiracy counts.

Assistant State Attorney Alan Johnson, Palm Beach County's public-corruption prosecutor, said the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles was working to invalidate the illicit licenses.

As many as seven examiners were in on the scheme, generating fees of $1,200 to $2,500 per license, witnesses told investigators. Reports don't give the total take, but the math suggests more than $1 million -- perhaps much more.

Investigators flagged 6,600 transactions that involved immigration forms and passports, reviewed three-fourths of those, and found 1,503 fake licenses had been issued.

According to the affidavit, the conspirators would generate counterfeit immigration documents and supply them to applicants, often handing paperwork to them in the parking lot of the Delray Beach license office.

If they flagged the transactions,I wonder if it will be possible to colect all those illegal drivers licenses. Then deport the illegals as well!

I hope the penalties and fines are severe!