Woman, boyfriend charged after allegedly stealing her brother's identity to commit crimes: DOJ
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- A man from Mexico and his girlfriend from San Diego have been charged in federal court for allegedly using the girlfriend's brother's identity to commit different federal crimes in the United States.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 20-year-old Luis Enrique Villegas Brownell, a Mexican citizen, and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Kassandra Sanchez, a U.S. citizen from San Diego, conspired to steal identification documents that belonged to her brother. Sanchez's brother was identified as J.D.S. Villegas in court records.
Authorities said Villegas went to the California Department of Motor Vehicles and gave them false information under penalty of perjury so that he could get a state ID card with J.D.S.'s name.
However, the state ID card was issued with Villegas' photo and thumbprint.
The couple used the fake ID to cross the border illegally for more than a year, authorities said. Prosecutors said he crossed more than 50 times in the past 17 months, with Sanchez often the one driving to the port of entry.
Video from the port of entry showed her lying to border officers while presenting the fake ID obtained by Villegas, the DOJ said.
When the real J.D.S. applied for entry to the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in April, he was unable to cross, authorities said. That's when he told border officers that his sister had asked for his identification documents so that she could smuggle her Mexican boyfriend into the U.S.
He added that when he declined to give them to her, Sanchez took them without his consent.
Prosecutors further alleged that Villegas used J.D.S.'s identity to commit crimes like smuggling an undocumented immigrant through the San Ysidro Port of Entry and fraudulently obtaining public state benefits such as Medi-Cal.
Furthermore, Sanchez allegedly committed the crimes while she was on supervised release for a prior federal conviction related to smuggling methamphetamine into the U.S.
