DPS worker accused of taking bribes for driver's licenses

For college students throughout Texas, getting a fake driver's license has long been a rite of passage, and often the key ingredient for an impromptu Saturday night kegger.

But for the undocumented, obtaining a phony license is a much more vital matter. And if they can get one that looks realistic because it is real - supplied unwittingly by the state of Texas - they will pay handsomely.

Jose A. Ytuarte, a 53-year-old customer service representative at a driver's license office, allegedly exploited that willingness to supplement his modest salary.

Working with an associate who would steer people to his office in Hondo, Ytuarte would input false information saying the applicant had been born in the U.S. The two would split anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000 per license, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.

Ytuarte and Azeez Mistry, 44, of San Antonio were charged with six felony counts in connection with the fraudulently issued licenses from May 2013 to July. Both have been released on bail pending trial.

The indictment follows a similar operation in Dallas, where Gloria Adame used her position as a state driver's license technician to supply seemingly real licenses to immigrants in the country illegally. Acting on her own, she was accused of approaching numerous potential customers and arranging for the issuance of at least 28 licenses, beginning in 2011.

Adame pleaded guilty in August and was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.

The lure of what must seem like easy money also has been seen in other states with a significant immigrant population. In Kansas, for example, a Department of Revenue driver's license examiner, Samantha Moore, allegedly helped supply fraudulently obtained licenses beginning in 2011. Moore, 28, faces 51 various counts in an ongoing investigation. At least 33 arrests have been made of people with the real-but-fake licenses.

Similar charges were levied earlier this summer against California Department of Motor Vehicles employees earlier, and in 2013 a Florida state employee was found to be selling driver's licenses to undocumented applicants who, as in the Texas case, had been steered to her by an associate.

An even bigger phony license scam in Las Vegas was broken up several years ago, but not before 187 illegal licenses had been issued.