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certification and even a Social Security card in one Phoenix case, Mignone
said. The fraud was the work of several pockets of illegal activity rather
than a single organization.
Of those arrested, 11 are current or former MVD employees in Tucson, two
are former employees in Sierra Vista, two are current MVD employees in
Douglas and one worked in Nogales.
The investigation started in December 2001 when an undercover Tucson
police officer working for a counter-narcotics task force received a tip that
MVD employees were selling the IDs, said Kathleen Robinson, assistant
chief of the Tucson Police Department.
Undercover narcotics officers continued to investigate and verified the
fraudulent documents were being sold when they purchased some,
Robinson said, at which point the investigation was turned over to the FBI
and expanded to the Phoenix area.
Although investigators have uncovered no link to terrorist activities,
authorities said it is cause for worry about the nation's security.
Guerin said those IDs were the "real McCoy" and would be nearly
impossible for anyone to tell they had been fraudulently issued.
The maximum penalty for each count of unlawfully producing
identification documents is 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine
"To my knowledge, this is probably the largest public corruption case in the
history of our state," said Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. "They
have sold national security in a traitorous and despicable fashion."
The indictments were announced at press conferences in Tucson and
Phoenix. In Phoenix, U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton said authorities will never
know how many fraudulent licenses were issued.
Nathan Gray, FBI assistant special agent in charge, said law-enforcement
officials will attempt to get as many names as possible from the suspects.
"It is going to be near impossible to know exactly all the people," Gray said.
Charlton warned MVD employees involved with the scandal or who have
knowledge of it to contact law enforcement.
Authorities said the workers who sold the fake documents were allowed to
continue with their jobs after undercover agents purchased the IDs.
It'll take more time in line to get a driver's license now that the state Motor
Vehicle Division has instituted new security measures in the wake of an
investigation into the sale of fraudulent licenses and ID cards, officials said.
But agency officials aren't sure how much more time.
"We will be scrutinizing much more closely. That will cause delays," said
Cydney DeModica, an MVD spokeswoman.
Those security measures include having document-verification experts at
all of the state's 62 MVD field offices who will examine identification
documents of all applicants. All documents will be photocopied and
examined in a central location before a permanent license is issued.
Gov. Janet Napolitano acknowledged the measures will cause delays.
"MVD has been focused for many years on keeping the line short, moving
the traffic through," Napolitano said. "But we have a law-enforcement
concern, a security concern that needs to be met now as well."
Napolitano announced the appointment of an inspector general in the
Arizona Department of Transportation, which oversees the MVD.
MVD customers already were seeing some delays because of a new policy
adopted by the agency Aug. 25 that limits the number and types of
documents that can be used to obtain an driver's license, DeModica said.
The policy prohibits the MVD staff from accepting driver's licenses from
19 states as a primary form of identification to get an Arizona driver's
license. Those states do not have "lawful presence" laws that require a
driver's-license applicant to prove he or she is lawfully in the United States,
she said.
Debra Brisk, deputy director of ADOT, said Arizonans who want to renew
their driver's licenses can go online at www.dot.state.az.us/mvd/.
Barrett Marson contributed to this report. Contact reporter Tim Ellis at
573-4176 or at tellis@....