Feds drop charges against fugitive in fake tribe

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to dismiss an indictment against a fugitive charged in an immigration fraud scheme by a Kansas group that claimed to be an Indian tribe.

The government says in a court document filed Tuesday that the whereabouts of Jorge Villareal are not known, and it is unlikely that he will be apprehended.

Villareal was one of 11 people charged in a scheme by the so-called Kaweah Indian Nation that defrauded immigrants by telling them that joining the tribe would give them U.S. citizenship.

Villareal was charged with seven counts, among them harboring illegal aliens, conspiracy to defraud and use of fraudulent documents.

The group’s leader, Malcolm Webber, is serving a five-year prison term in a scheme that ensnared about 12,000 people around the nation.