Posted on 06/26/2002 2:30:57 AM PDT by sarcasm
A state grand jury indicted 36 people - including eight who worked for the Division of Motor Vehicle Services - for schemes that provided New Jersey driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and identity thieves.
The indictments, handed up Thursday and announced Monday, outline criminal enterprises that reach from city streets in Newark, Paterson, and Union City to the counters of state DMV offices. License "brokers'' charged upward of $2,000 to obtain illicit permits and licenses for clients who couldn't drive legally or who wanted to steal others' identities, the state alleges.
The ongoing, two-year investigation - dubbed "Operation Identity Crisis" - charges that a sophisticated system of illegal license brokers operated throughout North Jersey and made use of at least six DMV offices to obtain fraudulent licenses. State police say the brokers and their associates bribed DMV workers to issue permits and licenses.
The Record reported last month that DMV workers throughout the state take money to falsify tests, overlook bogus documents, and fraudulently issue duplicate licenses.
It is not a victimless crime. The criminal networks put dangerous drivers on New Jersey roads and threaten safety and security.
Law enforcement officials said their investigation is continuing and more arrests are expected. State officials have identified workers at at least five DMV offices who remain under suspicion.
"Crime and corruption will no longer be tolerated. The stakes are simply too high," said Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox. "Let there be no misunderstanding of the commitment of this administration: If you are dirty, we will get you."
Peter C. Harvey, first assistant attorney general and director of the Division of Criminal Justice, said false identities were being sold through "a wide variety of means." Those involved in the schemes would obtain permits without identification, hire people to take the written or driving tests, or pay workers to certify someone had passed a written or driving test.
In some cases, brokers would arrange to steal the identities of licensed drivers and use them to lease cars - at least 10 late model vehicles totaling $415,000.
"Some of these cars, as you might imagine, are high-end luxury vehicles," Harvey said. "The true owners ... started receiving bills ... that they didn't know anything about. I can't tell you what that does to someone's credit."
At least four "cells" or independent networks of criminals were identified by law enforcement officials as they built their cases against those trafficking in state driver's licenses and ID cards, as well as passports, Social Security cards, county identification cards, and other official documents.
One investigator, state police Detective Stephen Jones, called the criminal activity "a virus that has spread throughout the whole state."
"We know what it looks like right now, we know how to treat it, so it's just a matter of time before we can eradicate it," Jones said. "It touches every county in the state, every agency in the state as well."
The eight indicted workers include two former employees of the Wayne DMV on Route 46, the former head clerk of the East Orange DMV, and a clerk at the DMV agency in North Bergen. Two state workers who were assigned to driver testing sites in Newark were also among those indicted, as well as a driving examiner from Edison and another from Rahway.
The workers are charged with taking bribes of between $50 to $250 for each transaction. One clerk in the Wayne agency allegedly produced more than 3,000 fraudulent documents for brokers, earning about $100,000 in a six- to eight-month period. The money added up so quickly, the woman wasn't even cashing her DMV paychecks, Harvey said.
Jones said one female DMV employee, stopped at lunch time after making a pickup from a broker's house, had more than $13,000 in her pocketbook.
"She told us that was two weeks worth of work," Jones said.
The people indicted represent all aspects of the criminal enterprise, which officials said operated like a business. Besides the eight DMV workers, the indictments included document brokers, drivers who earned from $50 to $100, middlemen who took exams for $250, and clients who paid in the neighborhood of $1,200 to $2,000 for photo driver's licenses. Identity thieves were also among the pack, as well as a car dealership employee who sold information about customers.
Signals passed between DMV workers, the brokers and their associates, and customers, prosecutors said. The workers would be told to look for a certain type of watch, or baseball hat, or a wristband or paper clip in a particular color. Once the "code" was recognized, the DMV worker would push the paperwork through the system
The scam went far beyond immigrants seeking licenses to work. Duplicate licenses with the identities of real drivers would sometimes be issued to help in identity-theft schemes.
Union City Detective Jack Ruiz said when they picked up Jose Nunez, who was among those indicted, he was carrying 12 different driver's licenses that came from six different Motor Vehicle agencies, including North Bergen and Jersey City. Union City Detective Jose Martinez said Maria Vijande, a former employee of the North Bergen DMV, was providing duplicate licenses to Nunez, who used them to buy vehicles.
State officials said that after licenses were obtained, brokers would create counterfeit pay stubs, W-2 forms, and other documents to be used as supporting identification in identity-theft schemes. Then, officials allege, certain brokers would use the stolen identity to purchase or lease cars with little or no money down.
Most of the 36 people indicted had already been arrested during the past year and were awaiting grand jury action. The charges include racketeering, bribery, official misconduct, and money laundering. Some were charged with identity theft, tampering with public records, conspiracy, and forgery.
The defendants will be arraigned in Superior Court in Passaic, Middlesex, Hudson, and Essex counties.
The indictments come as the McGreevey administration moves on several fronts to reform the troubled agency.
The governor created the Fix DMV Commission in April to address concerns ranging from customer service to security lapses. The commission is expected to make recommendations by Aug. 1.
State officials acknowledge that the indictments will not eliminate corruption at the 45 privately run DMV agencies and state-run driver testing sites, and that they are unlikely to gather enough evidence against every problem employee to uphold an arrest. In those cases, they will dismiss private employees, who can be fired for any reason.
State workers, however, are protected by union contracts and entitled to administrative hearings before dismissal. In cases of insufficient criminal evidence against state workers, DMV Director Diane Legreide said the division will try to build administrative cases to warrant dismissal.
Fox met with union representatives Monday morning and asked for their cooperation in rooting out problem workers.
"It is in no one's interest to allow a corrupt minority to tarnish the reputation of an entire workforce," he said.***
DMV Indictments
On Monday, the state unsealed indictments naming 36 individuals, including eight employees who worked at the DMV, for trafficking in fraudulent New Jersey driver's licenses. The charges range from official misconduct and tampering with public documents to bribery and theft by deception.
Those indicted are listed below in three groups; DMV employees, suspected document brokers and their associates, and alleged customers.
DMV employees
Sally S. Alexander, 61, Irvington; Teressa Gorgoroso, 25, Kearny; Raymond Hagensen, 51, Woodbridge; Marcus Harvey, 40, Newark; Julio Paredes, 50, Newark; Aixa Santiago, 20, Paterson; Marie Y. Thebaud, 32, Newark; Maria Elana Vijande, 40, Guttenberg
Brokers and associates
Karla Andree-Quesada, 35, Bridgewater; Rafael Cordero, 31, Somerville; Alfonso Davila, 41, Elizabeth; Carlos Fernandes, 38, Linden; Jose Gavilano, 46, Linden; Rodolfo Gomero, 41, Plainfield; Hector E. Ludena, 21, Elizabeth; Nilton C. Mellado, 31, West New York; Roger E. Mendez, 25, Somerville; Crisostomo Perez, unknown, Astoria, N.Y.; Luis R. Perez, 31, Union City; Gloria Placancia, 48, West New York; Juan Prugue, 45, Elizabeth; Roberto Ramos, 38, Keasbey; Juan Carlos Rondon, 33, East Newark; Roger Ruiz, 48, West New York; Vanessa Troncoso, 19, West New York
Customers and others
Hamdan M. Alqudah, 32, Paterson; Lou Cancio, 52, Lyndhurst; Marco Chinchilla, 25, Plainfield; Jorge Cruz, 31, West New York; Luis Davila, 42, Rahway; Juan Pablo Gomes Lopez, 20, Bergenfield; Norberto Melendez, 30, Hoboken; Edgar Morales, 22, Piscataway; Jose Nunez, 43, Rahway; Myrian Pena, 33, West New York; Julio Ruiz, 22, North Plainfield
I'll now go to my room for profiling.
State officials acknowledge that the indictments will not eliminate corruption at the 45 privately run DMV agencies and state-run driver testing sites, and that they are unlikely to gather enough evidence against every problem employee to uphold an arrest. In those cases, they will dismiss private employees, who can be fired for any reason.
State workers, however, are protected by union contracts and entitled to administrative hearings before dismissal. In cases of insufficient criminal evidence against state workers, DMV Director Diane Legreide said the division will try to build administrative cases to warrant dismissal.
Fox met with union mob representatives Monday morning and asked for their cooperation in rooting out problem workers.
"Hey, we're made, you can't touch us."
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