Seven Suspects Arrested at El Mirage Business Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputies pulled suspects out of dumpsters and down from barbed wire fences during a workplace raid conducted on the morning of Friday, June 25, 2010, in El Mirage, Arizona.
Deputies served search warrants after a six month long identity theft investigation at two separate locations of Parks and Sons Inc., a trash collection business located at 11629 NW Grand Avenue, El Mirage AZ and 11217 West Nevada Avenue in Youngtown, AZ.
Deputies learned during the execution of the search warrant that just minutes prior, a cell phone call tipped employees off spooking them to flee from the worksite diving into dumpsters and climbing over barbed wire fences to escape.
Seven suspects were taken into custody. Of the seven, two were identity theft suspects of the investigation who are suspected of living and working in the country illegally, one had an outstanding warrant, and four others were suspected of being in the country illegally and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Sheriff Arpaio says “A lot of critics and politicians seem to forget that in these identity theft cases, we have real victims who have had some form of their identification stolen. They always throw up the argument that illegal immigration is a victimless crime; ask those who are victims of identity theft about that”.
Investigators have learned through information given by a manager of Parks and Sons Inc. that the company contracts with the city of El Mirage, Arizona for trash collection.
The investigation will continue as sheriff’s deputies are still looking for several other employees that are suspected of engaging in identity theft. The investigation was initiated after two anonymous employees of Parks and Sons Inc. reported the illegal activity to the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Arpaio stated that his office is not only arresting illegal aliens engaging in identity theft during these investigations, but they are also creating job openings during tough economic times.
This case marks the 36th investigation that has led deputies to the workplace seeking suspects who have used false identification to gain employment, a class four felony. During those investigations, 415 suspects have been arrested, 277 of which for identity theft.
Arpaio says that his office will continue to enforce all federal and state illegal immigration laws and plans on conducting a large scale crime suppression operation at the end of July when the new state immigration law takes effect.
Source: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office