Hijackers Got Illegal State IDs, FBI Says

The small cluster of men had been hanging out in the parking lot next to the Arlington, Va., Department of Motor Vehicles office for at least four months, helping anyone who needed it--usually illegal immigrants--get a driver’s license or a state identification card for a small fee, usually $100 or less.

So it wasn’t unusual when, on Aug. 2, they were approached by “three Arab males” in a van seeking their services. The men in the parking lot led the men in the van to a lawyer’s office and swore to their state residency. The men in the van then returned to the DMV with the paperwork and easily got Virginia identification cards.

This description, provided in a recently released FBI affidavit, shows how a Virginia law--which allowed virtually anyone to swear to a person’s state residency so that person could get state identification--apparently enabled at least three of the men suspected of being among the Sept. 11 hijackers to pay a stranger about $80 each to help them get IDs. The suspects are believed to have sought the documents to make airport check-in easier for the doomed flights.

The affidavit is the first indication that suspects from three of the four hijacked planes were in the Washington area on the same day.

It also offers an example of how the hijackers apparently moved freely around the country to take advantage of a patchwork of regulations that vary from state to state. In Florida, where several of the suspected hijackers operated, officials are studying changes to safeguard that state’s driver’s license system.

The Virginia law was changed Friday. That had been planned before the attacks, because state officials found that the system had long been abused in cases of immigration fraud.

Until the law was changed, Virginia was one of the few states in the nation that did not require applicants to show an electric bill, lease or other documentation that they lived in the state. Likewise, applicants did not have to present a passport or other identity documents.

Instead, applicants could provide a notarized residency form co-signed by a Virginia resident or a notarized identity form co-signed by a lawyer.

“The agency has been conducting an extensive review of our entire list of acceptable documents,” said Virginia DMV spokeswoman Pam Gaheen. “This has been going on since the beginning of the year. Our goal all along was to eliminate the use of these forms.”

Thousands Have Exploited Law

In August, in fact, nearly a dozen people, including a northern Virginia notary public, were convicted in a case that exposed a thriving illegal market in Virginia driver’s licenses and ID cards for undocumented immigrants. Thousands of illegal immigrants had exploited the law, even though many lived as far away as New York and Massachusetts.

At least one of the men who allegedly helped provide IDs to the suspected hijackers, Herbert Villalobos, has been charged by the FBI in a criminal complaint with providing false documents. Authorities said Villalobos, who used the alias Oscar Diaz, is being detained in an undisclosed location.

The FBI affidavit, made public earlier this week, quotes Brian Weidner, a special agent based in Washington, who carried out the investigation, and based his case largely on testimony provided by a confidential witness, referred to as “CW-1.” CW-1 is a member of the network that helped people get fake IDs.

“CW-1 stated that he has provided this service to approximately 100 people during the past four months, and receives approximately $100 per individual,” according to the FBI affidavit.

“CW-1 stated that he and another Hispanic male he knew as ‘Herbert’ went to the van, and agreed to assist the three Arab males,” the affidavit continued. “According to CW-1, he and Herbert then drove to an attorney’s office in Herbert’s car, with the Arab males following in the van.”

When they arrived, all the men went into a waiting room where a female employee completed the forms. Neither the attorney nor the secretary is identified by name in the affidavit.

In the affidavit, Weidner said that when he later interviewed the secretary, she identified at least two of the suspected hijackers from photographs as having been in the office that day. She also identified the FBI informant, CW-1.

When shown a photograph of the real Oscar Diaz--whose name and address allegedly were used by Villalobos to obtain the paperwork--”the woman did not recognize him at all,” the affidavit said.

There is some confusion in the affidavit over the order of events, and the number of suspected hijackers involved. CW-1 talks about three Arab men, though at least four suspected hijackers have been linked to doing business at the DMV that day.

According to the affidavit, Villalobos--whom Weidner found next to the same DMV office CW-1 had described earlier--told him that he initially resisted helping the men, saying he could “get into a lot of trouble.”

Weidner said that Villalobos was shown photographs of several individuals suspected of being involved in the hijackings. From these photographs, he identified several of the suspects, including Hani Hanjour, Salem Alhamzi, Majed Moqed, and Abdulaziz Alomari as all having been at the Arlington DMV on Aug. 2.

Hanjour, Moqed and Alhamzi are three of the men believed to have commandeered American Airlines Flight 77, which plowed into the Pentagon. Alomari is one of the suspected hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

“These identifications were later confirmed by Virginia DMV records . . . , “ the affidavit said.

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Times staff writer Lisa Getter contributed to this report.