Investigations

On November 5, 2010, Neonel Aguero-Betancourt, a Mexican national illegally residing in the United States, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Baltimore, Maryland, to time served in jail, 36 months supervised release and a special assessment of $100 for his role in a conspiracy to manufacture fraudulent identification documents, including commercial driver's licenses.  Aguero-Betancourt will be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation following his release from jail.  On November 2, 2010, a co-conspirator, Claudia Guzman-Vasquez, a former Customer Service Agent with the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA), was sentenced to 6 months home detention with electronic monitoring; afterwards, Vasquez will serve a 36-month period of supervised release.

The investigation disclosed that from January 2008 to November 2009, Aguero-Betancourt, Guzman-Vasquez and others sold hundreds of fraudulent identification documents, driver's license, and commercial driver's licenses.  The number of fraudulent CDLs created by the conspirators remains under review but is in excess of 100. 

Guzman-Vasquez obtained the apartment in which the illegal documents were manufactured.  Federal agents and local police officers executed a state search warrant at the apartment.  During the search, large quantities of identification manufacturing equipment was seized as well as $31,822 in U.S. currency.  On the same day, all defendants, with the exception of Guzman-Vasquez, were arrested and placed in the custody of ICE as illegal aliens.  Guzman-Vasquez was terminated from MVA in December 2009.

This investigation was conducted jointly with ICE, United States Secret Service, United States Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, Montgomery County Maryland Police Department, Maryland State Police, and MVA Investigations and Security Division.