Call them 18-wheeler and dealers — or just call them criminal and dangerous. But if you’re wondering why some semi-truck drivers today don’t seem very skilled and may not even speak English, wonder no more. Because, it has been revealed, some Florida officials were giving illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses in exchange for bribes. This means, of course, that these migrants were circumventing the testing process and have no proven qualifications.
What’s more, the uncovered scheme centered around just one Sunshine State county. Similar scams are presumably operative in additional counties and other states — especially “blue” states with high illegal-alien populations.
Not Quite Maximum Overdrive, but Maximal Corruption
The Panama City News Herald reported on the story last Friday, writing:
Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford on June 12 announced the arrest of eight people in connection to a local scandal involving driver’s licenses being fraudulently issued.
According to a BCSO [Bay County Sheriff’s Office] news release, the investigation began May 20 after “suspicious driver’s license transactions” were discovered. It found that two employees of the Bay County Tax Collector’s office were being bribed to provide licenses to people who did not meet the requirements to obtain them.
“The investigation substantiated that two public employees were issuing licenses to aliens with varying legal statuses without providing the required testing,” Ford said during a news conference.
“These weren’t minor shortcuts,” Ford said. “These were intentional acts of corruption where individuals paid bribes in exchange for skipping critical safety evaluations. … Putting untested, unqualified drivers, especially those with commercial licenses, on our roads is an unacceptable risk to every family in this state.”
The local DMV employees arrested were Bancelie Velazco, 37, and Demetrius Smith, 30. Both are Panama City residents.
“Investigators learned (Velazco and Smith) were indeed issuing an unusually large number of driver’s licenses and, when in-house video at the DMV was reviewed, investigators confirmed the individuals receiving the licenses were bypassing the required tests necessary to lawfully receive a license,” the release reads. “These individuals were coming from across the state of Florida to Bay County to receive the driver’s licenses.”
In fact, a “large number” of licenses is an understatement because, apparently, the two officials really jumped the corruption shark. For example, as American Thinker’s Wendi Strauch Mahoney tells us:
Smith reportedly administered 295 driving tests in a single month — far above the average of about 20 to 25.
Hellbound and Down 