BOWLING GREEN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SENTENCED TO 1 YEAR AND 3 MONTHS FOR MAKING AND SELLING FALSE IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS

BOWLING GREEN, KY –R osendo Mendoza-Rodriguez, also known as Rogelio Villalon, age 24, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was sentenced on March 5, 2008, to 1 year and 3 months imprisonment in United States District Court, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for producing and selling fraudulent social security cards and other identification documents, U.S. Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky announced today. Thomas B. Russell, Judge, United States District Court, also sentenced Mendoza-Rodriguez to 2 years supervised release following incarceration. There is no parole in the federal judicial system. Mendoza-Rodriguez, an illegal alien, is subject to deportation after serving his sentence.

Mendoza-Rodriguez had previously plead guilty to a conspiracy to produce and sell counterfeit social security cards and resident alien cards with his co-conspirator, Olegario Gregorio. A cooperating witness purchased half a dozen sets of cards after going to Gregorio’s residence and either having his photograph taken, or providing photographs of other individuals who needed cards to Gregorio. Surveillance established that Gregorio would contact Mendoza-Rodriguez who would come to Gregorio’s residence on Durbin Street in Bowling Green to pick up the photographs and names to be used on the cards, and then drive to a trailer on Russellville Road which contained a computer, laser printer, laminating machine, and other document-making implements. The two defendants sold the cards for about $150 a set.

Gregorio pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 1 year and 3 months imprisonment in November 2007. Gregorio is also an illegal alien and subject to deportation after serving his sentence.

Mendoza-Rodriguez also plead guilty to similar charges of conspiracy to produce counterfeit identification documents which were pending in the Eastern District of Kentucky at the time Mendoza-Rodriguez was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Bowling Green in March 2007. As part of his Plea Agreement, Mendoza-Rodriguez agreed to forfeiture of a Lincoln Navigator registered in his name and various items of computer equipment used in the production of counterfeit identification documents which had been seized by the Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement in the Eastern District of Kentucky.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marisa J. Ford, and it was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Owensboro, Kentucky.

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