Lodi DMV Customer Arrested,
Charged with Document Fraud
(Trenton) – A customer at the Division of Motor Vehicle agency in Lodi was arrested Monday, charged with attempting to secure a New Jersey identification card with fraudulent documents.
Jose Cordero, 24, of the Dominican Republic, presented a birth certificate and a Social Security card to a DMV clerk as verification of his identity. After a visual inspection of the Social Security card, the clerk determined the document appeared altered and summoned authorities. Lodi Police arrested Cordero.
According to court documents, Cordero confessed to detectives and said he was convicted in Washington, D.C. on drug charges. Police said that subsequent to the Cordero’s jail term, he was supposed to be deported. Cordero was turned over to the agents from Immigration and Naturalization Service. A federal judge in Baltimore signed a deportation order for Cordero on Tuesday.
Cordero is the 40th customer to be arrested at the Lodi DMV agency in the past four months. DMV Director Diane Legreide attributes the arrests to the agency’s zero-tolerance policy on fraud and corruption.
"The hard work and diligence of our employees and the cooperation of the law enforcement community has thwarted a series of attempts to obtain New Jersey driver’s licenses and identification cards," Legreide said. "Those who participate in fraudulent and corrupt practices will leave our agencies in handcuffs."
In October, Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox and Attorney General David Samson announced the creation of a joint Document Fraud Task Force. Members of the Task Force developed a new document fraud training curriculum to help DMV employees detect bogus documents. The new training program is one of a series of corrective measures recommended by Gov. James E. McGreevey’s Fix DMV Commission.
The Commission recommended that DMV immediately institute document fraud training for the 500 employees at the division’s 45 agencies statewide. DMV staff, working in conjunction with the State Police, the Attorney General’s Office and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), developed a curriculum and a task force dedicated to training staff. The task force is being led by DMV fraudulent document expert, Joseph Vasil.
In the past four months, Vasil has conducted document fraud training classes for a total of 90 employees at nine DMV agencies.
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