Surgeon Who Cut Off Fingerprints Is Sentenced
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A plastic surgeon who replaced the fingerprints of a man involved in a drug ring with skin from the bottom of his feet was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison.
U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane called the crime “horrific” when she imposed the sentence on Dr. Jose Covarrubias. Covarrubias, 50, an American citizen who lived in the border town of Nogales, Ariz., and practiced in Mexico, pleaded guilty November 1 to a federal charge of harboring and concealing a fugitive.
The case was bizarre even to prosecutors, who didn’t believe the stories of drug ring operatives without fingerprints — until Marc George was arrested in September 2005 at the Nogales border crossing, bandaged and limping badly from the painful procedure. Prosecutors say the drug ring moved cash and drugs from Tucson and elsewhere and distributed more than a ton of it in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and other areas.
