Texan pleads guilty to faking IDs

One of two people charged with supplying fake and stolen citizenship documents to employees of a Hyrum meatpacking plant faces up to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court Wednesday.

Eleuterio Gutierrez of El Paso, Texas, pleaded guilty before Judge Paul Cassell to one count of sale of citizenship papers, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release.

Gutierrez also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft and could face up to four years in prison on those counts, along with a fine of up to $250,000 and up to one year of supervised release.

Federal prosecutors dropped a second count of sale of citizenship papers.

Gutierrez is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 21.

According to the original four-count federal indictment, Gutierrez and another defendant, Veronica Carrillo of Logan, were accused of providing documents to employees of the Swift & Co. plant in Hyrum. Last December, 145 alleged illegal immigrants were arrested at the plant as part of a larger operation in which 1,282 people were arrested at Swift plants in six states.

A change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for Carrillo on July 17.

Gutierrez was arrested in El Paso on Dec. 22.

"After being advised of his Miranda rights, he admitted to selling U.S. citizen documents to Veronica Carrillo," according to an advance plea statement.

The federal indictment alleges Gutierrez sent two fraudulent Illinois birth certificates and Social Security cards to Carrillo, which Carrillo sold to a confidential informant for $1,400. The informant then arranged for the purchase of another person's identity, according to the indictment. Carrillo is also accused of selling stolen information to Swift workers.

Neither Carrillo nor Gutierrez worked at the Hyrum plant.