Try for NM licenses draws alien charge

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque resident accused of taking money and arranging fraudulent documents to help two Polish men from Chicago obtain New Mexico driver's licenses has been charged with alien smuggling, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Jaroslaw Kowalczyk is accused of placing an advertisement in a Polish newspaper in Chicago promising a valid driver's license.

"He would assist them to obtain the documentation, and that would include for example, auto insurance," said U.S. Attorney Ken Gonzalez.

New Mexico State Police arrested Kowalczyk along with Piotr Stelmach and Rafal Marzec last week at a Motor Vehicle Division contract office on San Mateo Boulevard NE. Investigators said Kowalczyk had taken the men to an apartment and insurance company to obtain documents that had Albuquerque addresses on them even though Stelmach and Marzec live in Chicago.

"Those documents would be used to obtain a driver's license," Gonzalez said.

Investigators said Stelmach and Marzec are from Poland and that their visitors' visas had expired.

The men said the advertisement they responded to promised a New Mexico license and that a Social Security number was not necessary to obtain one. The ad also said there was a 100 percent guarantee.

"The allegation was that he (Kowalczyk) was receiving at least $1,000 from each of these two individuals for doing this for them," Gonzalez said.

Marzec and Stelmach aren't facing federal charges. They are, however, facing state charges for forging driver's licenses. Those charges are pending.

Last May, News 13 investigative Reporter Larry Barker found the state issued more than 1,000 driver's licenses to foreign nationals who were using fraudulent documents.

Barker reported that MVD will hand out driver's licenses even if people are hiding out in the U.S., as along as they supply proof of a New Mexico address.

MVD promised then to tighten its policies to make it tougher for illegal immigrants to fraudulently get licenses.

The U.S. Attorney said if it weren't for the MVD Express workers who noticed that the address the men were using had been used before in other forged license cases, the suspects might never have been caught.

Federal investigators said they've noticed other Polish nationals coming to New Mexico using the same motel, apartment and insurance company that Kowalcyzk used, but that they're only aware that Stelmach and Marzec responded to his ad.

Investigators said Kowalcyzk advertised his services in Chicago nearly two dozen times.

"The broader scope of this remains to be seen," Gonzalez said.