Homeland security officials have arrested one illegal alien with a genuine commercial driver’s licenses with hazmat endorsement who drove gasoline trucks for Exxon in Maryland, as well as six aliens in Illinois that also have hazmat clearance.
In Maryland, the gasoline truck driver is a Pakistan national named Mansoor Hassan was arrested on May 18, 2005 on six counts of making false statements about his citizenship to work for different gas companies. Hasaan was ordered by an Immigration Judge to voluntarily leave the U.S. in 1996. He defied the order and instead obtained a fraudulent CDL in Maryland, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In Illinois six illegal aliens were arrested in the past two weeks thanks to an investigation conducted by ICE, the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, and the Illinois Secretary of State Police.
“This cooperative law enforcement effort has closed a security vulnerability that might have resulted in dire consequences,” Elissa Brown, Special Agent-in-Charge of the ICE Chicago Office of Investigations said in a news release. “This is a national security issue. Illiegal aliens should not hav ethe freedom to transport hazardous materials throughout the United States.”
Separately, ICE provided an update to its earlier driver’s license crackdown in Florida announced in late April. It resulted in the arrest of three state Dept. of Motor Vehicles examiners, five middlemen who were believed to have issued over 2,000 driver’s licenses, CDLs, and hazmat-hauling endorsements.
To date, 52 people were arrested and 28 fraudulently obtained genuine CDLs were identified, four of which have had hazmat endorsements. ICE said the CDLs were sold for between $1,500 and $3,000, while driver’s licenses fell between $100 and $200.
Among the aliens who had obtained CDL’s and hazmat endorsements, some had past criminal records, including DWI, reckless driving, resisting arrest, burglary, battery, weapons charges and drug charges. A preliminary investigation from records held by the Florida Highway Patrol have linked at least 11 auto accidents with the aliens that obtained CDLs. The accidents resulted in numerous people injured and one death, an ICE spokesperson said.
