MCSO: Illegal immigrant used fake ID to try to enter Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant

MARICOPA, AZ - Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies say they arrested an illegal immigrant Wednesday after learning he attempted to enter the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant by using false identification.

According to MCSO, one of the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant security personnel called police after he suspected the Arizona license that the man was using to enter the complex was fake.

The man, identified as Nestor Martinez Ochoa, 40, admitted to deputies who arrived on scene that he was using a false ID and that he was also in the country illegally.

Plant personnel believe that Ochoa, who said he worked for a construction company, had made his way into an unprotected part of the nuclear plant in the past, a news release said.

Last year, MCSO said another illegal immigrant named Cruz Loya Alvarez had attempted to get into the nuclear plant as well.

Ochoa was booked under charges of using a fake ID and criminal trespassing onto a commercial nuclear generating station, both class four felonies.

MCSO deputies are reportedly in the process of investigating the construction company that hired Ochoa.