NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

BRADLEY J. SCHLOZMAN

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

JANUARY 24, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEXICAN NATIONAL INDICTED FOR

IDENTITY THEFT

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Mexican national was indicted by a federal grand jury today for identity theft and misusing a Social Security account number.

Luis Alberto Cruz-Flores, 25, a citizen of Mexico, was charged in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield.

Count One of the federal indictment alleges that, during and in relation to his commission of the offense alleged in Count Two, Cruz-Flores possessed, without lawful authority, the means of identification of another person; that is, a Social Security card bearing the name of another person, on May 2, 2005, in Barry County, Mo.

Count Two of the federal indictment alleges that Cruz-Flores, with the intent to deceive the state of Missouri as to his true identity, falsely represented a number to be the Social Security account number assigned to him.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard E. Monroe. It was investigated by the Exeter, Mo., Police Department and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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