Anyone who’s ever gotten a driver’s license knows how hellishly boring the state office for such services can be. Well, the semi-comatose Georgia residents waiting in line at the Cordele office of Georgia Department of Driver Services got a welcome break in the tedium when nine people were busted there for being part of an identity theft ring.
According to investigators, four of the suspects were brought to Georgia from Delaware. Once they arrived they were introduced to others who provided them with identification cards and counterfeit employment verification letters to establish them as Georgia residents.
The suspects also had authentic Texas birth certificates and Social Security cards in their possession when they were arrested.
The identity theft ring allegedly intended to acquire entire sets of identity documentation for undocumented aliens in southwest Georgia.
Officers from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Georgia Department of Driver Services and the Crisp County Sheriff’s Office participated in the investigation that led to the arrests.
The nine people arrested included three from small towns in southwest Georgia near Cordele. Arrested were Melisa D. Howeger, 25, of Tifton, Ga.; Peggy Sue Duckworth, 60, and her daughter, Rita Charline Rodriguez, 31, both of Moultrie.
The other six were from Delaware. They are Froilan Garcia-Juarez, 38; Jenner Estuardo Garcia-Garcia, 25; Erica Ablizar Perez-Villegas, 27; Hugo Juarez-Niz, 22; Parfecto Delfino, 20; and Portino Perez, 39.
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Tags: Cordele Georgia, Erica Ablizar Perez-Villegas, Froilan Garcia-Juarez, Georgia Department of Driver Services, Hugo Juarez-Niz, identity theft arrests, identity theft crime ring, Jenner Estuardo Garcia-Garcia, LifeLock promotional code, Melisa D. Howeger, Moultrie Georgia, Parfecto Delfino, Peggy Sue Duckworth, Rita Charline Rodriguez, Tifton Georgia
Finally Cordele is on the map! Too bad it’s for ID theft. Proof that it can happen anywhere.
What surprises me about this is the way the whole thing came from Deleware and Texas and converged in such a small town in Georgia. And all that to provide documents for workers from God knows where! People get fooled into thinking that because they live in a good neighborhood they’re safe.