 http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/12/31/two-brothers-sentenced-for-drug-tax-fraud/ Two brothers from the Dominican Republic have been sentenced for a drug and tax fraud conspiracy that authorities say could have exceeded $25 million.
The U.S. attorney’s office says Joel Santana-Pierna was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Anchorage to nearly 12 years and Abel Santana-Pierna got 72 months.
The men were also ordered to pay more than $550,000 restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and forfeited $130,000 obtained in their drug trafficking scheme.
They were charged with distributing cocaine in the Anchorage area. Prosecutors say they also conspired to use about 3,000 stolen Puerto Rican identities to file false income tax returns with the IRS.
Ten others were charged. Four have been sentenced; others await sentencing except one who is still a fugitive.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20131230/drug-trafficking-brothers-who-led-tax-return-conspiracy-will-do-time “The sheer greed of these drug traffickers is clear; they wreaked havoc on the innocent to bolster their personal wealth,” Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Matthew G. Barnes said in a prepared statement released to the media Monday. In the same press release, Richard Weber, Chief of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, called the sentences an “appropriate outcome” and said identity fraud remains a top priority for the IRS and that the agency will “relentlessly pursue those who choose to defraud the government and disrupt the lives of innocent taxpayers.”
At the same time in another part of the Unites States
New Hampshire State Troopers arrest Deybi Santana Zapata on multiple charges.
State Police have arrested a man they allege was trying to obtain a state license using another person’s identity.
Deybi W. Santana Zapata, 24, of the Dominican Republic, was arrested on Dec. 27, and charged with multiple counts of tampering with public records and unsworn falsification.
According to a report, members of the New Hampshire State Police Troop G learned that Santana Zapata “was attempting to fraudulently obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license using another person’s identity, after entering the United States illegally.”
Santana Zapata was arrested at the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Concord with the assistance of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the DMV. He is being held without bail and will be arraigned on Dec. 30.
State Police are asking anyone with information about this case to call Trooper Kenneth Carr at 603-223-8778
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