The manager of the company, a U.S. citizen, who admitted to having knowledge that employees were using fictitious identification documents. The manager will be charged with a class 2 felony for trafficking in identity theft.
The nine other suspects are in the United States illegally.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Criminal Employment Squad started the investigation after receiving information from ADOT employees of possible fraud.
ADOT became alerted to the use of fraudulent IDs when one employee of Upright Commercial Cleaning, a Government contracted cleaning company, attempted to completely change his name on his ADOT building access card.
“Forgery and the use of fake identifications is a serious crime which creates serious security issues, especially when a government establishment is infiltrated by people with fraudulent identifications,” Arpaio says.
On Friday, Sheriff’s detectives served a search warrant at Upright Commercial Cleaning (332 W. Thomas Rd), and obtained further documentation of potential ID theft and forgery. The investigation is ongoing as more victims are being identified.
Sheriff’s detectives, during the investigation, found that 12 employees of the Phoenix based cleaning company were possibly using false IDs to gain employment.
Detectives say the owners of Upright Commercial Company were cooperative throughout the investigation and likely had no knowledge of the criminal activity of one of its managers.
The suspects are identified as: Novia Ramos – Lux (DOB 9/6/1984), Rosa Pinon – Zamora (DOB 10/16/1976), Clementa Alvarez (DOB 4/6/1975), Juan Zamora – Bernal (DOB 7/12/1960), Lucia Garrido – Martinez (DOB 11/2/1976), Ingrid Ajchonay (DOB 3/1/1994), Merced Rodriguez – Zuniga (DOB 9/24/1983), Martha Blancharte (DOB 2/1/1977), Humberta Alvarado – Barreno (DOB 8/26/1989), Martha Gomez – Gandarilla (DOB 11/8/1968).
All ten were arrested and booked late last night into the 4th Avenue Jail.
In the last eight criminal employment operations, the Sheriff’s Office has arrested 29 suspects on forgery and ID theft. And since 2008 over 782 suspects have been arrested and booked by Sheriff’s deputies for forgery and ID theft.