3 federal cases spotlight identity fraud tied to CDLs
A Connecticut man is accused of using a stolen Social Security account as a supporting document to reside, work and maintain a CDL in the state. (idealistock/Getty Images)
Key Takeaways:
- A Kentucky jury convicted Joel Sanchez-Mendoza of citizenship-related false statements and aggravated identity theft tied to a stolen identity and CDL.
- Atuchukwu Markrufus Onyeanusi pleaded guilty in South Dakota after authorities found identification documents bearing his photo but another person’s name.
- Flor Consuelo del Carmen Caballero Bernabe is awaiting trial in Connecticut on charges that include passport fraud, identity theft and false statements.
Two foreign nationals were convicted and a third was charged in federal court cases involving the theft of U.S. citizens’ identities to obtain commercial driver licenses.
The cases involved a Mexican national who obtained a Kentucky CDL after buying the identity of a Puerto Rican, a Nigerian man whose photo appeared on a Texas CDL issued under another person’s name, and a Peruvian accused of stealing a Puerto Rican’s identity to maintain a Connecticut CDL.
Prosecutors in divisions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kentucky, Connecticut and South Dakota brought a series of charges against the three people in cases filed last year.
Kentucky
Now in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons is Joel Sanchez-Mendoza, 39, who came to the U.S. as a child with his parents from Mexico. None of them attempted to become naturalized citizens, according to his sentencing memorandum.
Sanchez-Mendoza, who had juvenile convictions, bought the identity of Puerto Rican Luis Morales in 2016 to avoid deportation. He was arrested, convicted, served a federal sentence and sent to a halfway house under the name Morales. He married, started a family and took a forklift job in a Kentucky transportation company, which promoted him to truck driver and paid for his CDL — all under the stolen identity.
A probation officer apparently discovered in 2025 another Luis Morales with the same name and Social Security number living in Ohio. The true Morales learned an imposter “was filing taxes in his name when he applied for benefits in 2023,” court documents state.
Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, which was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
On Feb. 24, a federal jury in Lexington convicted Sanchez-Mendoza of making a false statement of citizenship to engage in unlawful employment, making a false statement of citizenship to obtain a Kentucky CDL, and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Sanchez-Mendoza was sentenced June 26 to concurrent sentences totaling two years and was fined $400. Upon release, he will be supervised for three years. On July 2, his attorney filed a notice of appeal of the conviction.
Texas
A criminal case unfolded Nov. 10, 2025, when Atuchukwu Markrufus Onyeanusi, a 32-year-old Nigerian, was stopped for speeding in Craig County, Okla. He told the sheriff’s deputy he was moving from Minnesota to enlist in the Air Force in Texas, had a Texas driver’s license and allowed a vehicle search, according to a court statement.
Inside the vehicle were two IDs bearing photos of Onyeanusi but under the name David Chibuzor Obiadoh. One ID was a Texas CDL, and the other a cyberthreat analyst employment card at a health board in South Dakota.
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Onyeanusi admitted to using the fraudulent CDL and Social Security card of another person to obtain the job in Rapid City, S.D.
In February, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents in South Dakota federal court. On May 20, he was sentenced to time served (nearly six months), a year of supervised release, fined $1,000 and ordered to pay a $100 fee to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.
The next day, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Onyeanusi as a criminal convicted alien from Nigeria. Though he legally entered the United States in 2022 and became a green card holder, he was subject to removal proceedings because of his crimes. Onyeanusi received a final removal order June 11 from an immigration judge, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Transport Topics.
“Possessing a green card is a privilege, not a permanent right to remain in the United States. Under our nation’s laws, certain crimes render aliens, even lawful permanent residents, inadmissible and removable if our laws are broken and abused,” the spokesperson added.
Connecticut
Flor Consuelo del Carmen Caballero Bernabe, 55, of Peru, is being prosecuted in federal court in Connecticut after being arrested Aug. 14, 2025. The defendant was charged with passport application fraud and passport misuse, both of which carry prison terms up to 10 years.
Other charges and possible prison time:
- Making a false claim of U.S. citizenship, three years
- Misusing a Social Security number, up to five years
- Aggravated identity theft, mandatory two years
- Giving false statements, up to five years
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, the defendant allegedly came to the U.S. in 2000 on a nonimmigrant visa and subsequently began using the identity and Social Security number of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico to reside, work and maintain a CDL in Connecticut.
Caballero Bernabe is accused of using the fake identity and SSN to apply for a U.S. passport in 2005, renew it in 2015 and use it for international travel.
“In 2021, the U.S. passport was renewed in the name of Byron Ruiz after Caballero Bernabe completed the probate court process for a name and gender change. Caballero Bernabe again traveled internationally using the renewed passport,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office noted.
An investigation into Caballero Bernabe, who was living in Darien, began after the Puerto Rican whose identity the defendant allegedly stole “applied to the Social Security Administration seeking Social Security disability benefits in 2022,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office noted.
The real individual was informed that a person living in Connecticut had been earning income under the same SSN. Caballero Bernabe subsequently was alleged to have made numerous false statements to federal agents investigating the identity theft.
Jury selection is scheduled for Nov. 3. This case has been handled by investigators from the Department of Transportation, Department of State, Social Security Administration and HSI.
