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September 10, 2007

Former poultry plant employees plead guilty to immigration, identity theft violations

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Five former employees of a southwest Missouri poultry-processing plant pleaded guilty in federal court Monday, in separate cases, to various immigration and identity-theft related violations. John F. Wood, United States Attorney, Western District of Missouri, made the announcement; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other federal and local agencies, investigated this case.

All five are citizens of Guatemala, including: Armando Verde-Villanueva, 23, a citizen of Mexico, and Elias Hernandez-Tevalan, 41, Bladimiro Gomez-Garcia, 33, Gabriel Lopez-Alvarado, 38, and Ervin Mendez-Ordonez, 22. They pleaded guilty in separate appearances this morning before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge James C. England to the charges contained in separate federal indictments returned on June 27, 2007. Each of the defendants was arrested during the execution of search warrants on Tuesday, May 22, 2007, at George's Processing Inc., in Butterfield, Mo.

Each of the five defendants pleaded guilty to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen, aggravated identity theft and misuse of a Social Security number. In addition, Verde-Villanueva and Gomez-Garcia each pleaded guilty to illegally re-entering the United States after having been deported.

These cases are being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard E. Monroe and Gary Milligan. They were investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the U.S. Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Force, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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