Staff and News Channel Nebraska
A Fremont man was sentenced in court for making and transferring fraudulent documents.
U.S. Attorney Steven Russell said 42-year-old Martin Alonzo Castro, of Fremont, was sentenced in federal court in Omaha on Friday. Castro was charged with conspiracy to produce and transfer fraudulent documents. He was sentenced to time served and has been in custody since his arrest on April 14, 2021. Castro will serve a three-year term of supervised release and will be deported by U.S. immigration authorities. There is no parole in the federal system.
According to court documents, officers were investigating an identity theft matter that involved the use of a deceased person’s Social Security number in the spring of 2020. They found out that co-defendant Tomas De La Cruz-Perez was providing fraudulent identity documents at that time.
Officials said investigators made several purchases of fraudulent documents (Social Security cards, state driver’s licenses, and lawful permanent resident cards) from De La Cruz-Perez throughout the year. De La Cruz-Perez was getting dozens of packages from California through the U.S. mail.
Authorities said the investigators found out that co-defendant Luis Alberto Castro-Santos, of Pomona, Cali., was the source of the fraudulent documents mailed to De La Cruz-Perez for sale to customers in Nebraska. They determined that Castro and co-defendant Estuardo Ruiz-Orozco, of Wakefield, were also selling the fraudulent documents that they got from Castro-Santos in California.
According to court documents, Ruiz-Orozco was sentenced to prison for a term of 24 months on May 12, 2022. Castro-Santos and De La Cruz-Perez were sentenced to prison for terms of 24 months and 15 months, respectively, on Oct. 21, 2022.
Officials said the investigators set up coordinated arrests of the defendants on April 14, 2021. Investigators got warrants to search the Nebraska defendants’ homes and cars, where they found hundreds of counterfeit federal and state identity cards.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, and the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles.
