FORMER DALLAS POLICE OFFICER AND WIFE SENTENCED IN PASSPORT/VISA FRAUD CASE

DALLAS - Jose Luis Cabrera and his wife Moraima Carrete De Cabrera, who pled guilty to charges in a passport/visa fraud case earlier this year, were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper, of the Northern District of Texas.

Jose Luis Cabrera, 37, was sentenced to two years probation and 100 hours of community service. He pled guilty in February to one count of making a false statement in an immigration document. Moraima Carrete De Cabrera, 34, was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison and deportation following completion of her sentence. She also pled guilty in February to one count of making false statements in a passport application. Both are residents of Rowlettt, Texas. Moraima Carrete De Cabrera has been in custody since her arrest in November 2006.

A co-defendant in the case, Mohammad Yousof Hakemy, 39, of Southlake, Texas, was sentenced earlier this month to two years probation and fined $5000. He was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. Hakemy pled guilty in February to aiding and abetting Moraima Carrete De Cabrera when she made false statements in her passport application.

In May 2002, Moraima Carrete De Cabrera, while purporting to be another person, made false statements in a U.S. passport application by using a false alias name and a false Social Security number. At her request, defendant Mohammad Yousof Hakemy personally appeared at the passport office in Dallas to assist Moraima in securing the passport. He signed a false Affidavit of Identifying Witness which falsely represented that he had known her for six years. Hakemy well knew that she planned to submit the false affidavit as part of her fraudulent application for a U.S. passport.

From early January 2003 through early February 2003, Moraima Carrete de Cabrera and Mohammad Yousof Hakemy traveled together to Paris, France, and during this trip Moraima used this fraudulently obtained passport to travel to Paris and then to return to the United States. From 2002 to 2004 she also used the fraudulently obtained passport to travel with Hakemy to Italy and Mexico.

In March 2004, Jose Luis Cabrera married Moraima Carrete in Denton County, Texas, knowing that she was in the United States illegally. Shortly after they married, they traveled to Columbia to meet members of Jose's family. Moraima used a U.S. passport that she had previously fraudulently obtained. Jose knew that Moraima's passport had to be fraudulent because Jose knew she was an illegal alien and could not have lawfully obtained a legitimate U.S. passport. On or about April 14, 2004, while traveling with defendant Jose Luis Cabrera, co-defendant Moraima unlawfully used fraudulently obtained United States passport number 017132491 to gain entry into the United States at Miami, Florida.

Jose Luis Cabrera admitted that in December 2005, he made a false statement, under oath and penalty of perjury, with respect to a material fact in an Affidavit of Support (Form I-864), falsely representing in the affidavit that a certain Social Security number was assigned to immigrant Moraima Cabrera. In December 2005, both Jose and Moraima falsely represented on at least two immigration and visa-related documents that the Social Security number listed on this document was assigned to Moraima.

In March 2006, Moraima Cabrera falsely represented in her Application of Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Form (Form DS-230) that her only previous visit to the U.S. was in November 1989, when she well knew, and concealed from the U.S. Department of State, that she re-entered the U.S. several times, including the trip to Columbia with Jose Cabrera in April 2004.

At the sentencing hearing, the government presented evidence that Moraima Cabrera engaged in the following unlawful conduct: 1) she used fraudulent social security numbers not assigned to her to obtain several credit and debit cards in her name and in the name of another person; 2) in 2002 she fraudulently obtained a Texas driver license in the name of another person; 3) she repeatedly used a false identity in 2006 to make cash withdrawals from area banks; 4) she engaged in drug dealing in 2004 and 2005; and 5) she moved large amounts of cash drug proceeds from the United States to Mexico.

U.S. Attorney Roper commended the joint investigative efforts of the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Social Security Administration - Office of Inspector General - Office of Investigation, and the Dallas Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis.