Updated, 9:30 a.m. Friday: Johnson County law enforcement officials arrested one of two people they were seeking in a fraudulent driver's license ring Thursday night.
Earlier Thursday, District Attorney Stephen Howe asked for the public's help in locating Monica Hernandez-Gonzalez, 44. He described Hernandez-Gonzalez as a "fixer" who helped connect undocumented workers with a former driver's licenses examiner making false documents.
So far, 40 people have been arrested in the scheme.
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Johnson County law enforcement officials are still looking for two people believed to be involved in a fraudulent scheme to supply undocumented workers with Kansas driver's licenses.
According to District Attorney Stephen Howe, 32 people have been arrested, including 28-year-old Samantha Jo Moore, a former state driver's license examiner who worked out of the Mission, Kansas, office.
Police are looking for Monica Hernandez-Gonzalez and Antonio Garcia-Simon, individuals Howe described as "fixers" who helped connect people looking for driver's licenses with Moore.
"These individuals were not using real people's identities. They weren't stealing the identities of other individuals," Howe told reporters at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The Kansas Department of Revenue's Office of Special Investigation uncovered the fraud.
Kansas Secretary of Revenue Nick Jordan called a driver's license "the identification to get you through just about anything you want to do," including getting a credit card or boarding an airplane.
Jordan said driver's license examiners go through a rigorous verification process that includes a criminal background check and fingerprinting.
"We train the examiners on how to spot counterfeit documents," Jordan said. "We have a real-time online verification of Social Security numbers."
Moore is no longer employed with the department, he said.
The other people charged are Justino Mejia-Lopez, Edgar Hernandez-Gonzalez, Jesus Basurto, Refugio Hernandez, Hector Castro-Vazquez, Andres Rangel-Pena, Jaime Rangel, Andres Ruiz-Arellanes, Alfredo Mercado, Jose Aguero, Isabel Chavez, Fidel Valverde, Francisco Cacique, Fermin Zepeda, Shaylynn Celedon, Luis Contreras, Carolina Mejia, Victor Jimenez Flores, Veronica Anchondo-Acosta, Octavio Rodriguez, Pedro Olvera, Alexander Arroyo, J. Valles, Cristina Hernandez, Lazaro Ortega, Ricardo Jimenez, Alvino Ramirez, Porfirio Espinoza-Nevarez, Hector Castro, Ana Castro-Villalobos and Edson Mera.
