A Brazilian national living in Boston illegally has admitted to his role in a scheme to get fake driver’s licenses for hundreds of people living in the United States illegally. — A Brazilian national living in Boston illegally has admitted to his role in a scheme to get fake driver’s licenses for hundreds of people living in the country illegally.
Gabriel Nascimento De Andrade, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to unlawfully produce and possess with intent to transfer identification documents, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman scheduled sentencing for April 9.
Nascimento De Andrade is the third person to plead guilty in the case. He was charged in December 2024 along with four co-conspirators.
Cesar Agusto Marin Reis was sentenced to 290 days in prison in September, and Helbert Costa Generoso was sentenced to 9 months in prison in October.
From November 2020 through September 2024, prosecutors said Nascimento De Andrade and his co-conspirators fraudulently procured driver’s licenses for illegal alien customers who lived in states that prohibited illegal aliens from obtaining driver’s licenses.
Before July 2023, illegal aliens living in Massachusetts were not allowed to obtain Massachusetts driver’s licenses. Beginning in 2019, illegal aliens residing in New York became eligible to obtain New York driver’s licenses.
Gabriel Nascimento De Andrade and his co-conspirators “conspired to fraudulently obtain New York driver’s licenses for illegal alien customers who did not reside in New York, including Massachusetts residents, and after July 2023 to fraudulently obtain Massachusetts driver’s licenses for illegal alien customers who did not reside in Massachusetts,” Foley said.
The co-conspirators collected money from the customers in exchange for fraudulently obtaining the driver’s licenses for them.
In one instance, prosecutors said on April 24, 2024, Nascimento De Andrade requested and accepted $450 in cash from a customer in the parking lot of a Plymouth RMV branch location, in return for providing the customer with a fake cable bill to provide to the RMV, falsely showing that the customer lived at an address in Massachusetts.
In New York, before obtaining a driver’s license, applicants were required to pass a written permit test and complete driver’s education coursework from a New York driving school. Online permit test-takers were required by the New York Department of Motor Vehicles to take a picture of themselves with a web camera during the test.
This was to ensure that the test-taker was indeed the applicant and that there was not a person sitting with and helping the applicant with the test.
To avoid the customers having to take the permit tests, prosecutors said Gabriel Nascimento De Andrade and his alleged co-conspirators conspired to obtain several pictures of the customers sitting down, making it look as if the customers were taking the tests.
They also allegedly conspired to complete the permit tests for the customers online. When prompted by the New York DMV to take pictures during the tests, they also allegedly conspired to upload the pictures that the customers previously provided, purporting to show that it was the customers who were taking the tests, not the defendants.
The co-conspirators allegedly conspired to create fraudulent driver’s education certificates of completion, purportedly from New York driving schools, and they conspired to forge the signatures of driving school staff on the fake certificates and to give these documents to the customers to provide to the New York DMV.
The New York DMV also required that applicants appear at a NY DMV location and provide documents to prove their identity and residence in New York.
The co-conspirators allegedly conspired to meet Massachusetts-based customers at locations in Massachusetts – typically several customers at a time – and drive them to New York DMV branch locations.
When they arrived at the New York DMV locations, prosecutors said the defendants allegedly gave the customers fraudulent documents falsely purporting to demonstrate that the customers resided in New York. The New York DMV relied on the misrepresentations to issue New York driving permits to the customers.
The co-conspirators allegedly conspired to arrange for the New York DMV to mail the permits to locations in New York that were controlled by the defendants and provided the permits to the customers in person.
The defendants then allegedly conspired to schedule road driving license tests for the customers with the NY DMV and, again, drive the customers to New York for them to take the road tests.
If the customers passed the tests, the New York DMV sent the driver’s licenses to mailing addresses in New York that the defendants allegedly controlled, and the defendants then provided the licenses to the customers.
Prosecutors said they allegedly conspired to obtain Massachusetts driver’s licenses for out-of-state residents, in generally the same manner as they allegedly obtained the New York licenses for Massachusetts residents.
Collectively, Nascimento De Andrade and his co-conspirators fraudulently applied for licenses for more than 1,000 customers, obtained licenses for more than 600 of the customers, and collected at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.
For the charge of conspiracy to unlawfully produce and possess with intent to transfer identification documents, Nascimento De Andrade faces up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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