Washingtontimes.com
Detention hearings are scheduled for today in Laredo, Texas, for three employees of the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud.
Sergio Genaro Ochoa-Alarcon, 31; Benjamin Antonio Ayala-Morales, 34; and Ramon Alberto Torres-Galvan, 34, were arrested last Thursday night in Laredo by agents of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service.
The men, all citizens of Mexico, worked as visa clerks at the busy Nuevo Laredo consulate, which issued more than 100,000 visas last year. Prosecutors have declined to say how many visas may have been distributed in the purported scheme.
According to criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Laredo, two of the men provided visas to prospective applicants for payment, generally about $1,500, and the third was paid by a visa broker for improperly arranging visas. Those who obtained the visas did not go through required interviews and background checks.
Law-enforcement authorities have said the scheme is believed to have been directed by a woman in Mexico, identified as Margarita Martinez Ramirez, who made arrangements for the visas to be sold. They said she sometimes met potential clients at Church's Chicken restaurant in Laredo.
Posted by Suzanne at February 6, 2003