Washington's Voz - Crack down on couple who sold authentic licenses

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Crack down on couple who sold authentic licenses

Patricio Carrera
Special fot Washington's Voz
07/15/2005

Francisco J. Martinez, 57, the manager of the Department of Motor Vehicles customer service center at Springfield Mall, and his wife, 56-year-old Miriam Martinez, were arrested on Tuesday, July 12 on federal charges of conspiring to commit identification fraud.

An alert signal sent by the Department of Homeland Security put the FBI and the DMV to work on this case. After six months, the investigative process ended with the capture of three individuals who allegedly were part of the network that sold authentic driver licenses at the agency in Springfield, North-East Washington.

Martinez has been for 15 years a DMV employee and has performed as supervisor for four years. He had about 30 people under him. He and his wife hava a residence off Garrisonville Road in North Stafford. A third accused is Daniel Jose Guardia-Lopez, 25, an Alexandria resident who is undocumented in the country, court records show.

Virginia tightened in 2003 its DMV process with the Legal Presence Law, passed by the General Assembly. Those seeking licenses for the first time or replacements for expired, suspended or revoked licenses are now required to prove they are in the country legally.

The immigrants to whom the Martinez produced driver licenses for were not qualified to have them because they were illegally in the country or because their licenses had been suspended. Many of the “clients” were sent to him by his wife and Guardia-López.

Martinez is accused of charging for the illegal operation between $2,000 and $3,500 for the licenses. According to court records, since January of 2004, about 40 unqualified recipients had received a license, including Guardia-Lopez.

According to officials, right after his arrest in June, Guardia-Lopez told authorities he was in the country without the proper documentation. He had labor jobs, but made the extra income by helping other immigrants obtain licenses by fraud.

According to officials, Guardia-Lopez was the first one to be arrested. From the very beginning he decided to cooperate with the authorities who monitored a phone call to Miriam Martinez, who was not aware that he had been arrested.

He told her he had two clients, who were in fact his cousins from Bolivia. In the next call, Martinez told Guardia-Lopez that her contact person, believed to be Frank Martínez, could receive the clients on July 2, officials say.

On June 30, Miriam Martinez and Guardia-Lopez met in a grocery store parking lot in Alexandria. He gave her $6,000 in cash in return of paperwork for them to complete. Soon after, undercover agents met with Martinez at the Springfield Mall. They went with her to the DMV office and received licenses under the names of Pedro and Juan Sanchez. According to the records, both licenses were given by Frank Martinez.