Man pleads guilty to supplying fake, stolen documents to meat plant workers

A second defendant has pleaded guilty to charges of supplying fake and stolen documents to workers at a Hyrum meat processing plant.

Veronica Carrillo faces up to 12 years in prison after entering a guilty plea Tuesday before federal Judge Paul Cassell to one count of sale of citizenship papers and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Carrillo of Logan and Eleuterio Gutierrez of El Paso, Texas, were accused of providing documents to Swift & Co. employees at the company's Hyrum plant. Last December, 145 alleged illegal immigrants were arrested at the plant as part of a larger operation in which 1,282 people were arrested in six states.

Carrillo is to be sentenced Oct. 4. The sale of citizenship papers charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and up to a $250,000 fine, along with up to three years of supervised release. Carrillo also faces a mandatory two-year sentence on the aggravated identity theft charge, along with a fine up to $250,000 and one year of supervised release. She also must pay any restitution and faces deportation.

According to the original four-count federal indictment, Gutierrez provided Carrillo with birth certificates and Social Security cards, which she sold to a confidential informant.

"Carrillo told (a confidential informant) that she has sold over 300 U.S. birth certificates in the past," an advance plea statement said. When Carrillo was arrested Dec. 12, 2006, a ledger was located that contained the details of 23 transactions in which people had purchased or ordered identity documents from Carrillo, the statement said.

Gutierrez, who earlier pleaded guilty, is to be sentenced Aug. 21. Neither Carrillo nor Gutierrez worked at the Swift plant.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com