A 49-year-old Nicaraguan, wanted since 2003 for credit-card fraud and identity theft, has been arrested by U.S. law enforcement agents in a case that reinforces warnings that identify theft has become "one of the fastest-growing crimes" in the United States, says the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

In a January 28 statement, ICE, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said that the Nicaraguan, Domingo Chamorro-Zamora, was arrested several days earlier in Miami, Florida, after he had escaped prosecution for two years on the same charges. A warrant had been issued for his arrest in July 2003.

ICE said that identify theft –- including the methods used by terrorist and criminal networks to employ stolen identification and other documents to construct a false identity, thus easing entry into the United States -- has become one of the most complex crimes for law enforcement officers to address. ICE said its investigators work to uncover identity theft in immigration cases before significant damage is done to the victims.

The arrest was part of "Operation Southern Star," a joint initiative of the U.S. Marshals Service and ICE that uses combined resources and information sources to locate and arrest fugitives.

In Zamora's case, it was learned that he also had been deported from the United States as a criminal in 1980. As a criminal alien already deported, Zamora was barred from re-entering the United States for 20 years. He could now face U.S. federal charges of criminal re-entry after deportation, which carries a possible 25-year prison sentence.

Zamora is currently in federal custody awaiting extradition to the U.S. state of Georgia, where he had been arrested in 2003.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which maintains a database of identity-theft cases used by law enforcement agencies for investigations, says people whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years -- and their hard-earned money -- "cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record.” And “in the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit," the Federal Trade Commission points out.

The U.S. State Department announced a new program in May 2004 that it said would contribute substantially to worldwide travel-document security and the U.S. ability to impede the movement of terrorists and other criminals.

To accomplish this objective, the State Department said, the United States is joining many other countries in providing current information on issued passports reported lost or stolen to the “lost and stolen document” database of Interpol, the international police organization, which will be available to border authorities worldwide.

The State Department described this action as a "significant step in the direction of curbing not only terrorism but also identity theft and other types of identity fraud."

Travel-document fraud, including the fraudulent application for and use of a U.S. passport, represents a serious and growing threat to U.S. national security, said the State Department.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)