Wreath makers face deportation for stolen IDs

BANGOR – Four Mexicans who had been working at Worcester Wreath Factory in Topsfield pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court on charges of possession of identification that was stolen or produced without proper authority.

Gabriel Sanchez-Marcos, Octavio Diaz-Hernandez, Alejandro Marcelo-Hernandez and Rafael Munoz-Rodriguez each appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret J. Kravchuk and were read their charges through interpreter Paul Garcia.

The men, who appeared confused during the entire process, will be sentenced Wednesday morning. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Moore recommended a sentence of seven days in jail for each. The men will be deported to Mexico after they serve their sentences.

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Dennis Harmon arrested the four men on Sunday after he pulled over a van with Pennsylvania license plates that carried five Hispanic males traveling on Route 6 in Topsfield.

According to his affidavit, Harmon wrote that the U.S. Border Patrol received information that a large group of possible illegal aliens was working at the Worcester Wreath Factory.

“During the past month, most of the drivers and occupants of [out of state] vehicles were hunters,” Harmon stated in the affidavit. “Noting that yesterday was a Sunday and hunting is not allowed in Maine on Sunday … I concluded that the occupants were not hunters.”

Harmon spoke with each of the men, first in English, then Spanish. Each replied that they were natives of Mexico, had entered the country illegally and had been working in Topsfield since Nov. 1, 2004, according to Harmon’s statements.

Marcelo-Hernandez was in possession of a fraudulent Social Security card, which he told Harmon he bought for $20 in New Jersey, and a fraudulent California driver’s license that he purchased in Pennsylvania, according to the affidavit.

Diaz-Hernandez possessed a false resident alien card and Social Security card, which he told the agent he bought both for $50 in Arizona.

Sanchez-Marcos had the same fraudulent documents, which were bought in New Jersey for $40, and Munoz-Rodriguez had purchased similar duplicitous identification for $100 in New York.

Harmon’s affidavit said that in the past, he and other agents with the U.S. Border Patrol station in Houlton have arrested illegal aliens who were employed at Worcester Wreath Factory.