JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jamaican national has been sentenced for identity theft after he frequently obtained a Florida driver’s license while claim to be a U.S. citizen following a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Jacksonville investigation.
Alandrae David Brown, 30, was sentenced to seven months in federal prison. Brown entered a guilty plea on Aug. 27, 2024.
“This recidivist criminal’s pattern of disregard for the law and identity theft is a betrayal of conscience and a direct assault on the victim’s life,” said HSI Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Hemker. “Identity theft is never a victimless crime as it devastates people emotionally and financially. HSI, alongside our law enforcement partners, are dedicated to uncovering the truth, no matter how criminals try to conceal it.”
According to court documents, in September 2017, Brown obtained a Florida driver license in the name of another person. When he applied for the license, Brown represented that he was a United States citizen and that he was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In support of the application, he provided a purported U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate and a valid Social Security number.
In April 2024, Brown was arrested by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, where he used his fraudulently obtained driver’s license and identified himself as another person. Suspecting that Brown was not who he said he was, immigration authorities interviewed him about his identity and citizenship, but he insisted that he was in fact the person in whose name he had obtained the license. Federal agents obtained passport records and U.S. Virgin Islands driver license records for the person whose identity Brown had adopted and the photographs in the records were not of Brown. Virgin Islands authorities confirmed that the birth certificate Brown used to obtain the license was a forgery.
After conducting this investigation, agents interviewed Brown and confronted him with the evidence they had collected, but he insisted that he really was the person whose identity he had stolen. After being charged, Brown admitted that his name was Alandrae David Brown, that he was from Jamaica, and that he was illegally present in the United States. Agents confirmed his identity with the Jamaican government.
This case was investigated by HSI Jacksonville and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold B. Corsmeier.
HSI Tampa’s area of responsibility, which includes 10 geographically strategic offices, covers more than 51,600 square miles of the total 65,757 square miles in the state of Florida. This region has more than 14.2 million people and includes 58 of the 67 counties. HSI Tampa also includes five of the 10 largest cities in Florida, 15 primary commercial service airports, and 11 seaports.
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