Posted on 06/15/2014 7:22:39 AM PDT by BAW
SAN DIEGO — It wasn’t long after the new manager started her job at the El Cajon branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles that she noticed something was wrong.
The passing scores for driver tests just weren’t adding up. The written test and the driving test aren’t usually given the same day. So how could drivers be passing both tests just minutes apart?
It turns out they weren’t. Many of those drivers hadn’t even taken the tests.
Her suspicions launched an FBI probe that revealed a corruption scheme that peddled more than 100 fraudulent driver’s licenses for bribes to DMV employees in excess of $20,000.
The case provides a glimpse into just how easy, and for how little money, official driver’s license s can be bought and sold, and the potential threat such corruption poses to our national security.
Thirty-one people were charged, from the owner of an El Cajon driving school who masterminded the scam to a DMV supervisor to immigrant drivers who hit the roads with these licenses.
All but one, a fugitive, have pleaded guilty.
(Excerpt) Read more at utsandiego.com ...
No one should need permission from some government agency to drive a car.
Motor voter. I wonder if they registered them to vote.
You don't. You can drive a car, all you want, without a license, on your private property.
You only need a drivers license if you want to drive on taxpayer funded roads and highways.
Mark
No one should need permission from some government agency to drive on taxpayer funded roads and highways.
So, while I don't need government permission to do 100% of the things I would like to do, I think I probably need government permission to do 98% of the things I'd like to do.
I have a problem with that.
Any surprise there?
DMV employees shouldn’t be charged because they were only training to be a congress critter.
/s
Oh, and by the way.....roads and highways should not be funded by the taxpayers.
I do not know anything about DMV corruption and the buying of licenses by bribery.
I, on the other hand, think that most DMV officers are much too liberal. I think that perhaps 50% - 75% of all drivers who have been issued driver’s licenses should never be allowed to sit behind the wheel of a car. Most drivers are complete idiots and should not be allowed to control a dangerous weapon as a moving automobile.
Be that as it may, driver’s licenses were the first time that Big Brother began accumulating data on his citizens.
Maybe not, but since that’s how things are at the moment, why should people who broke the law to get here be allowed to break our driving laws?
First, from the article:
The ad in the Arabic Yellow Pages for U.S. Driving School caught Asiel Tomika’s eye.
And DHS wasn't involved in this?
Once the DMV’s investigations unit started to suspect a larger operation, the FBI was called in.
Only the FBI. Oh, later the JTTF
Given the countries many of the immigrant drivers came from, the countywide Joint Terrorism Task Force was brought in to help verify their identities and check for ties to extremists.(snip)
DMV officials did not say specifically if the El Cajon case has prompted any further safeguards to prevent future corruption.
But DHS should have had good reason to be involved, if not at least over the potential terrorist facilitation, but over DHS funds being misused in the form of Grants that were, in addition, utilized on the basis of # of licenses/IDs issued.
Over the 2 year period the article suggests the scheme operated (2009-2011 from what I can ascertain) the State of California received Grants from Department of Homeland Security totaling >$8,000,000 over that period...you can find details in reports to the CA legislature here and here for the specific report outlining the grants as I noted.
And DHS isn't involved, given the intent of the so-called Real ID Act to PREVENT terrorism by ensuring the sanctity of State-issued ID cards/licenses?
Besides the fact that this should be a HUGE blow to the Real ID program, my mind naturally wanders back to Fast & Furious, ya know? The penalties all seem 'slap-on-the-wrists', based on the article...
“Further, by removing corrupt employees, DMV further ensures our security and the public trust. Through these investigations, vulnerabilities are identified.”
'My' faith is not restored. Do you feel better, given the fact the scheme was only discovered by one alert employee that hadn't yet been ensnared in the scheme?
Therein lies the bigger concern with corruption at the DMV, an agency of nearly 10,000 employees that provides the baseline official proof of identity for U.S. residents and also holds troves of personal information, from Social Security numbers to home addresses to photos. “In the world we live in now just to fly, look at what we have to go through to get on an airplane, and we need to make sure the wrong people aren’t getting on those planes,” said Borst, the FBI official.
Go figure. California was receiving and spending Federal Grants from Department of Homeland Security just for those concerns and, still, after all those Million$ and 4+ years there is still no system to ensure it won't happen again.
Worse, with all the ongoing debate about coddling 'illegal immigrants' and all recent events, they say this about the 'scheme':
“As best as we can tell, they didn’t have any nefarious motivations,” Borst said of the drivers. “They were trying to get licenses to make a living.”Oh, Ok. Must be alright then.../s
Word started to spread fast and wide within the immigrant networks.The Real ID Act: Department of Homeland Security making you safer because they said so. </sarc>“One man flew from Dallas, got off the plane, took a cab to the DMV, took a cab back to the airport and flew back to Dallas,” said Daron Borst, an assistant special agent in charge at the San Diego FBI office. “That’s alarming.”
So in the end, they really do have ID’s to vote, correct??
“I, on the other hand, think that most DMV officers are much too liberal. I think that perhaps 50% - 75% of all drivers who have been issued driver’s licenses should never be allowed to sit behind the wheel of a car. Most drivers are complete idiots and should not be allowed to control a dangerous weapon as a moving automobile.”
The last time I had the extreme misfortune to have to go to the CA DMV I got a good laugh out of their then current slogan: “Steering is Not Enough!” Judging from some of the moves I see on the highway, not many read and understand that admonition. Que passa Pedro?
Therein lies the problem with government control. From reading the article it appears that only U.S. citizens were punished (DMV workers...assuming they are U.S. citizens) while the ones purchasing the illegal licenses through bribery were given a pass.
“As best as we can tell, they didn't’t have any nefarious motivations,” Borst (FBI official) said of the drivers. “They were trying to get licenses to make a living.”
So, we have government officials picking and choosing which laws they want to enforce, and on whom.
The less regulation, the better. Yes, we may have to put up with more accidents, etc. Even so. Let freedom reign.
I believe that you could make the case that you only need one if you are driving for commerce purposes.
I did. Years ago there was a local DMV employee who would fast-track licenses with the bribe of a bottle of whiskey. If questioned, I have forgotten all the details!
Without going back to the article and relying on my memory, they never said they actually found them all and seized the IDs, did they?
As stated, to me...it ‘smells’.
That’s a lot of words.
Didn’t answer a very direct question though.
I smell troll.
Perhaps you need a shower.
Thought it was a rhetorical question. Of course people who broke the law to get here should not be allowed to break our driving laws.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.