Nine immigrants arrested on conspiracy charges

Occasionally, illegal immigrants seek underground ways to get ahead in the United States, often by obtaining fraudulent documents. In Mississippi, a group of illegal immigrants were the source of false identity distribution, the Hattiesburg American reports. Nine people were arrested on charges of identity theft in Hattiestberg, Mississippi, who were allegedly running a scheme from a trailer park in Laurel. Ricardo Obispo Martinez appeared in court with two federal crimes charged against him -possession of firearm as an illegal alien and conspiracy. In July 2010, Homeland Security agents went undercover, and purchased counterfeit social security cards and fake identification papers, all of which has matching names and numbers. According to the Federal Trade Commission, approximately one-quarter of all Consumer Sentinel Network complaint types are related to identity theft. Fraud is the most common complaint. By installing wiretaps, agents were able to discover the details of the identity theft scheme, and received a federal warrant to search Martinez's trailer, where they found a black case with his unregistered gun.