BISBEE — A Mexican man charged with conspiracy, forgery and identity trafficking was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday in Cochise County Superior Court.
|
|
He pleaded guilty in an agreement last month to trafficking on Jan. 11-12, 2007, and conspiracy between Jan. 11, 2007, and March 3, 2007. The remaining charges were dismissed.
The prosecution and defense agreed that Plaza would be sentenced to between three and five years for the trafficking count. Judge Wallace Hoggatt decided to sentence him to five years.
The parties also agreed that Plaza would be sentenced to probation for the conspiracy count. Hoggatt sentenced him to seven years of unsupervised probation. Defense attorney Ruben Teran told the court his client came upon hard economic times and then resorted to making the false documents to make money. Plaza said he seriously regretted his actions.
On Jan. 11, 2007, Plaza took photos and personal information from an undercover detective in Sierra Vista, according to his pre-sentence report. He used them to create two permanent resident cards, two Social Security cards and a Sinaloa driver’s license.
On March 2, 2007, also in Sierra Vista, Plaza received a photo from an undercover detective, and he agreed to manufacture fraudulent documents, according to the report. He created a permanent resident card and a Social Security card.
In January, Plaza was extradited from Mexico City and was booked into the Maricopa County Jail for a failure-to-appear warrant out of Cochise County.
Comments