This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Posted: 4:36 PM- A Logan woman has pleaded guilty today to selling birth certificates and Social Security cards to undocumented immigrants -- some of them workers at a raided Utah meat plant.
Veronica Carrillo faces up to 10 years in prison on the first count of selling citizenship papers and a mandatory two years tacked onto the end of that term for the ID theft.
In addition, the 42-year-old Mexican national will be deported after serving her time.
Sentencing before U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell in Salt Lake City is scheduled for Oct. 4.
The charges against Carrillo stemmed from a nationwide investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into possible identity fraud.
That same probe led to raids in December at six Swift & Co. plants, including Hyrum. Almost 1,300 workers were detained, approximately 150 of them in Utah. Carrillo, who did not work at Swift, was detained the same day.
As part of a plea deal, she admitted that she sold two birth certificates and two Social Security cards sent to her from Texas late last year to a government informant. The informant paid $1,400 for the four documents.
In one conversation, Carrillo told the informant that she has sold more than 300 U.S. birth cerficates in the past.
Her co-defendant, Eleuterio Gutierrez, a 48-year-old U.S. citizen who was living in El Paso, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of sale of citizenship papers. He is slated to be sentenced Aug. 21.
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