A Guatemalan native helped over 100 undocumented immigrants obtain false IDs in a scheme involving stealing licenses. Pedro Pablo-Solis pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to aggravated identity theft.
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Pablo-Solis is a citizen from Guatemala residing in Kansas who ran a conspiracy to provide false identity documents to over 100 undocumented immigrants. They fraudulently obtained driver’s and non-driver’s licenses from the office in St. Joseph where Pablo-Solis worked for the Missouri Department of Revenue. Undocumented immigrants traveled across the U.S. just to be able to obtain the licenses from the St. Joseph office. They used stolen birth certificates and social security cards to create the false documents.
It is estimated that over 100 Missouri licenses were unlawfully issued to the immigrants as part of the conspiracy between July 2010 to Jan 2012. Pablo-Solis’s role was crucial to the success of the conspiracy as he would obtain real social security cards and birth certificates then would later give them to undocumented immigrants in order to create the identification cards.
Pablo-Solis is the fifth co-defendant to plead guilty in this case. Four other members were a part of the scheme and they have also pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy which included unlawfully producing identification documents, unlawfully transferring the means of identification of another person and committing social security fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Furthermore, several members escorted the undocumented immigrants into the St. Joseph license office while pretending to be their translators. They charged a fee of about $100 for assisting in getting the identification documents. Immigrants were additionally charged between $500 and $950 for document sets and the Missouri driver’s license. According to several sources, it was common knowledge among the employees in the office that co-conspirators were assisting undocumented immigrants in obtaining licenses. Pablo-Solis is not subject to a mandatory sentence of two years in prison without parole and a fine up to $250,000.
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