NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

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

JULY 18, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FIVE MEXICAN NATIONALS INDICTED

FOR IMMIGRATION VIOLATIONS

INDICTMENTS STEM FROM ROOFING INVESTIGATION

            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that five Mexican nationals were indicted by a federal grand jury today, in separate but related cases, of illegally reentering the United States after having been deported.

             Most of the defendants are believed to have been employed by Mid-Continent Specialists, Inc., a roofing company doing business as New Century Roofing. They were arrested in Grandview, Mo., on June 18, 2007, during a worksite enforcement action by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

             Rodrigo Juarez-Martinez, 29, Sabino Francisco-Santos, 26, Jose Antonio Franco-Guzman, 28, Marcos Cortes-Cosme, 27, and Rafael Garcia-Santos, 27, all citizens of Mexico, were charged in separate indictments returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City.

             According to the indictments, Juarez-Martinez , Francisco-Santos and Franco-Guzman were deported from the United States on April 12, 2001; Cortes-Cosme was deported on May 25, 2005; and Garcia-Santos was deported on Dec. 12, 2003.

            Wood cautioned that the charges contained in these indictments are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

            Each of these cases is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard N. Staples. They were investigated by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.