Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Hernando Today > News

Applicant's background snags attention

By HERNANDO TODAY STAFF

Published: December 27, 2007

SPRING HILL An undocumented worker applying for a driver's license raised a clerk's suspicion when the suspect claimed he was Puerto Rican, a deputy reported.
Authorities say 30-year-old Alex Dias asked to replace his driver's license Wednesday and provided a Puerto Rican birth certificate and a social security card as proof of his citizenship.
The clerk told a deputy that she was "immediately suspicious" because Dias appeared to be Mexican, not Puerto Rican.
Per the tax collector's policy, she went ahead with the application after signaling her co-worker to call the sheriff's office.
A detective from the sub-station next door to the Spring Hill tax collector's office came over and pulled Dias aside. The suspect told another deputy that he lived in Crystal River and had come into the country illegally via an inner tube on the Rio Grande, a report states.
Dias' brother had sent him the two Puerto Rican documents from New York City so that he could get a driver's license and avoid deportation, Deputy Dustin Mormando said.
Dias was charged with criminal use of personal identification information and making a fraudulent application for a Florida ID card. Federal immigration officials were notified.