42 year-old Alfredo Orlando Gonzalez Marcos, and his common-law wife 46 year-old Marleny Elizabeth Castellanos, both Guatemalan nationals, are at prison tonight after they were taken to court for possession of false immigration documents including Belizean passports. The couple is accused of mass fraud because they managed to use the identities of dead Belizean citizens to get passports, social security cards, and voter identification cards. That's what the Immigration Department says they uncovered after over a month of investigation. Yesterday, Alfred Marcos was picked up from his work site, KHMH, where he was employed as an X-ray technician. His wife, Marleny Castellanos was detained at the Western Border; she was attempting to flee the country.
Investigators from the Immigration Department found out that this couple has been living illegally in the country since 1999, at a Smith Street address in the Kings Park area of Belize City.
To try to legitimize their status here in Belize, they obtained the birth certificates of 2 Belizeans from Benque Viejo Town who are deceased: Romana Gonzalez and Raquel Castellanos. With those stolen identities, they managed to get social security cards issued to them in July of 2010.
Following up on that success, they then applied and received passports in those names in May of 2012. Finally, Alfredo Gonzalez Marcos managed to get voting rights in the country by obtaining a voter's ID.
Now, all these documents were legally obtained, but because they used stolen identities, every single one of them are considered false documents.
Immigration Officers charged Alfredo Gonzalez Marcos with 6 offences for his false documents, while Marleny Castellanos was only charged with 4. They were arraigned before Magistrate Dale Cayetano today, where they pleaded guilty to all charges. Magistrate Cayetano postponed their sentencing hearing until Friday May 16.
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