28, in Culberson County in West Texas.īoth trucks had paper tags issued by Kasniels Auto Sale, a dealer the DMV shut down for suspected tag fraud, just one day after an NBC 5 investigation revealed Kasniels tags were for sale on-line and widely seen on the streets of Dallas.
NBC 5 Investigates learned Texas DPS troopers stopped two pickup trucks hauling more than 400 pounds of marijuana on Nov.
Suspected Paper Tag Peddler Shut Down Tuesday, Reopens Wednesday: Investigators Meanwhile, NBC 5 continues to uncover more cases where criminals are using illegally sold paper tags to commit crimes and hide their identities from police. “Everybody’s on it, all hands on deck, from the Senate to the House, to my committee members,” Canales said. “That would be something that that would potentially be recommended to the legislature for change,” Brewster told NBC 5.Ĭanales said he will not wait for the 2023 session to begin the process of addressing the flaws in the system and said he has asked the House Speaker for permission to hold hearings on the issue as soon as possible so that the transportation committee can begin working on solutions.
The DMV does not fingerprint dealer license applicants or meet them in person and DMV Executive Director Whitney Brewster recently said her agency might have to wait until the legislature reconvenes in 2023 to gain the authority to fingerprint. “We've got some huge issues that we've got to tackle dealing with this fraud, it’s very real, it’s very pervasive”, Canales said, adding that the recent NBC 5 reporting has, “educated the legislature” about the scale of the problem.Ĭanales said the DMV and lawmakers must find ways to prevent criminals from getting dealer licenses in the first place.ĭMV officials recently acknowledged the department has even issued dealer licenses to people using stolen identities, who were then able to gain access to the state's tag system.
Download our local news and weather app for Apple or Android - and choose the alerts you want.