‘Extraordinary’ ID Thief Gets 15 Years

SAN DIEGO (CN) - After a blistering tongue-lashing from the judge, an identity thief who impersonated a man for 30 years was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison.

Ramiro Plascencia-Orozco, 60, of Guadalajara, Mexico, has hardly been a model citizen. He used 35 aliases, was removed from the United States more than 20 times, and prosecuted 10 times for alien smuggling, illegal reentry, identity theft, false claim to U.S. citizenship, drug trafficking and other crimes, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

His primary victim was Alberto Jose Del Muro-Guerrero, whom Plascencia met in the 1980s. Since then, Del Muro has suffered from the long string of crimes for which Plascencia was prosecuted, prosecutors said. At his sentencing Monday, Plascencia continued to claim that he is Del Muro

U.S. District Judge John Houston said the 184-month prison sentence was warranted because of the "extraordinary" nature of the case.

"Throughout the last 30 years he (Del Muro) has not had the opportunity to advance his life for himself and his family," the judge told Plasencia. "He could not get a good job because of the criminal record that you imposed upon him. Because he couldn't get a good job, it's only reasonable to infer that his kids could not get a better education, that he could not have a better lifestyle for he and his family, because he was limited and handcuffed by you, because you stripped him of his identity throughout his entire adult life, to the benefit of yourself, and to his detriment - his extreme detriment."

Plasencia even claimed to be the father of Del Muro's children, and claimed that Del Muro had stolen his (Plasencia's) wife, by whom she had his (Del Muro's) children.

Del Muro, who was not present at the sentencing, asked the court to make it stop.

"I want him to get enough time in jail so that he doesn't come out and reuse my name," Del Muro wrote in a letter read to the court. "He only gets 3-4 years each time and as soon as he is released he uses my identity. Please do me a favor of putting an end to this. Have him stop bothering me and my family. It happens too often. Please give the maximum punishment you can since he deserves whatever you decide."

A federal jury in August 2014 convicted Plasencia of two counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of illegal reentry.

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