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Fingerprint Removal Costs Doctor
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Published: February 14, 2008
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 Wednesday to 18 months in prison.
U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane called the crime "horrific" when she imposed the sentence on Jose Covarrubias.
Covarrubias, 50, a U.S. citizen who lived in the border town of Nogales, Ariz., and practiced in Mexico, pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to a federal charge of harboring and concealing a fugitive.
He apologized to Kane for his conduct and said he had learned his lesson.
He has been in Adams County Jail for about 10 months and can be released in eight months. He then faces three years of probation.
The case was bizarre even to prosecutors, who didn't believe 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.
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