4 homes being confiscated

Police call the houses havens for illegals and drug activity

OREM — Federal government officials are starting the legal process to confiscate four Utah County homes they say were havens for illegal immigrants and illicit drug activity.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah says Medarda Doylit Cervantes, 50, from Peru, owned four homes in Provo, Orem, Lindon and Pleasant Grove that she rented to illegal immigrants.

Two people who lived in one of those homes recently pleaded guilty in 4th District Court to possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute after police linked them to nearly 150 pounds of marijuana found in one of Cervantes' homes.

Homero Ruiz and Sabina Bustamante-Taffolla pleaded guilty June 28 and will be sentenced Aug. 9.

The two were also charged in 3rd District Court with possession with the intent to distribute, said West Jordan Police Sgt. Greg Butler.

The West Jordan Neighborhood Narcotics division made the arrests on May 1, which also led to 11 illegal immigrants being deported back to Mexico.

But it wasn't the marijuana that got Cervantes in trouble.

As they investigated the drug bust, however, officials discovered that Cervantes, the homeowner, was using nearly a dozen names and half-dozen different identification cards.

That included her use of a Social Security card to get a job and buy property in Lindon.

Officials also learned that Cervantes had illegal immigrants as tenants at a duplex in Provo, as well as a fourplex in Orem. The fourth property was in Pleasant Grove.

Her tenants were paying her $200 to $400 in cash without receipts or contracts, according to federal documents of forfeiture.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment May 16 that found Cervantes had used unlawfully obtained documents for employment as well as altered, purchased, counterfeited or possessed with intent to alter a Social Security card, according to federal documents.

Cervantes pleaded guilty to those charges June 21 and as part of that plea agreed to forfeit the four properties in Utah County.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah will run notices in newspapers for three weeks about its intent to take the property through forfeiture, then has 30 days from the last notice to file notice for a default judgment in federal court, said Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah.

The common process of forfeiture is an attempt to limit the amount that "people profit from their criminal conduct," Rydalch said.

The investigation began in May when West Jordan police followed Ruiz and Bustamante-Taffolla from Salt Lake County to the home in Lindon.

With the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force and Pleasant Grove/Lindon police providing backup to watch the home, West Jordan police made a traffic stop on the two men as they headed back into Salt Lake County.

In the car police found 10 pounds of marijuana wrapped in plastic, according to federal documents of forfeiture.

A subsequent search warrant led police to 12 illegal immigrants in the home as well as 100 pounds of marijuana in 31 separate packages, said Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander. There was also additional plastic wrapping and a scale.

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E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com

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