Tahira Dolores S. Miah was arrested on the afternoon of Dec. 12, 2010. Her husband Mohammad Jahangir Miah was also arrested on the same day.
At the time, Mrs. Miah was not detained since she was cooperating with law enforcement.
The court required Mrs. Miah to execute a $5,000 unsecured bond, to surrender and to not obtain any new passport or travel document.
Mr. Miah has been detained since his arrest.
He facilitated the release of a driver’s license on May 14, 2010, the prosecution said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Schuler is prosecuting the case.
The court appointed attorney G. Anthony Long to represent Mrs. Miah.
The complaint stated that Mrs. Miah committed an unlawful transfer of CNMI driver’s license on April 16, 2010 “knowing that such identification document was produced without lawful authority, and the production and transfer of the identification document was in or affected interstate or foreign commerce.”
Last February, a cooperating source informed the Homeland Security Investigations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Saipan office that a Chinese female offered to sell the cooperating source a fraudulently obtained CNMI driver’s license, according to resident agent in charge Mark D. Yamanaka.
On April 13, 2010, the cooperating source met with the Chinese female outside a restaurant in Chalan Piao.
The cooperating source was required by the Chinese female to provide a $100 deposit.
The Chinese female said it would cost around $400 for the cooperating source to obtain a CNMI driver’s license, but it would be “cheaper” if the cooperating source was able to find others that needed driver’s license.
In the afternoon of April 16, 2010, the Chinese female and the cooperating source met with Mrs. Miah in a white Toyota Corolla which was parked near a restaurant in Chalan Piao, the prosecution said.
“In the vehicle, defendant Tahira completed a CNMI driver’s license application for the [cooperating source],” Yamanaka said.
After the application was turned in, the three met again in the vehicle of Mrs. Miah who told the Chinese female and the cooperating source that the defendant had already “finished” six customers that morning.
“Defendant Tahira further told the Chinese female that [Mrs. Miah] charges between $210 to $300,” Yamanaka said.
After arriving at the CNMI Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Mrs. Miah was left in the vehicle, while the Chinese female and the cooperating source entered the BMV office.
The Chinese female provided the cooperating source’s driver’s license application to a “Micronesian male adult at window number one,” the prosecution said.
Yamanaka said: “The Micronesian male adult took the application, had the [cooperating source] pose for a CNMI driver’s license photo, and within 10 minutes the [cooperating source] was issued a CNMI driver’s license.”
