|
Three Brazilian nationals were arrested today on charges they were producing fraudulent immigration and identification documents for sale to illegal aliens who were seeking to obtain Massachusetts and Maine drivers licenses.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Robin M. Avers, Special Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New England; and Colonel Thomas G. Robbins, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, announced today that three individuals were arrested on criminal complaints charging them with Conspiracy, Counterfeiting Immigration Documents and Possessing Illegal Identification Documents.
Those charged are:
1) Antonio Ferreira, of 61 Waite Street, Malden, MA;
2) Adriano X. Amaro, of 545 Main Street, Medford, MA; and
3) Ivanice Silva, of 25 Ashland Street, Taunton, MA.
According to affidavits filed in support of the complaints, it is alleged that Ferreira produced counterfeit immigration and identification documents such as visas, green cards and social security cards depending on the needs of "customers."
It is alleged the Amaro and Silva worked for Ferreira assisting him in a number of ways. It is alleged that they helped to locate customers; advise and assist the customers with the license application process either at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles or the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles; and received payments for the fraudulent documents.
The three defendants were arrested this morning and will appear this afternoon in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein.
If convicted, each of the defendants faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on the Counterfeiting and Possessing Immigration Documents charge, 5 years in prison on the general Conspiracy charge and 3 years in prison on each of the remaining charges.
The details contained in the complaints are allegations. The defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case is being investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Massachusetts State Police's Compliance Unit with assistance from the Diplomatic Security Service, the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Bator in Sullivan's Major Crimes Unit.
Source: U.S. Attorney
PRNewswire
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.