Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Wendy Bashnan, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, Miami Field Office, announce that defendant Arcesio Rojas Valencia a/k/a Arcisio Rojas Valencia a/k/a Arcy Valencia, 50, formerly of Broward County, Florida, and most recently of Costa Mesa, California, has entered a guilty plea to charges of passport fraud and aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1542 and 1028A. Valencia appeared today in federal court in Fort Lauderdale before U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas.
Valencia admitted that he was born in Colombia, South America in December 1962, but in or around March 2001 in Florida, applied for and obtained for his own use and with his own photograph, a U.S. passport in the name of his U.S.-born son and birthdate of October 1965. To do so, Valencia submitted to the Department of State a copy of his son’s U.S. birth certificate, with the year of birth altered from 1985 to 1965. Valencia admitted that he knew that his statements in the passport application as to the name, date of birth, and place of birth were false. Valencia further admitted to willfully and knowingly using the passport on or about May 26, 2008, at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, and during and in relation thereto, to knowingly possessing and using, without lawful authority, the means of identification of his son, “A.V."
On Nov. 30, 2012, a federal grand jury in Miami charged Valencia, and an arrest warrant was issued for him. Diplomatic Security Service agents located Valencia in Southern California, where they arrested him in Los Angeles on December 5, 2012. Based in part on an active Broward County arrest warrant dating back to 1990, the U.S. Magistrate Judge in California ordered that Valencia be detained until trial. Valencia was returned to the Southern District of Florida in late December. At a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow in early January 2013, Valencia stipulated to continued pre-trial detention due to the outstanding state arrest warrant.
Valencia faces a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment when he is sentenced on May 28, 2013.
Mr. Ferrer commended the efforts of the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, in locating the defendant. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert T. Watson.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
