The FBI has begun an investigation into a Missouri driver training
school at the request of its director who noticed an unusual number of CDL test
applicants with Mideastern names.
The South Central Career Center Truck Training Program, which is run by
the West Plains public school district in Springfield, MO, is under
investigation because a large number of people taking tests for commercial
driver’s licenses at the school appeared to be Middle Eastern.
The Associated Press reported that Dean Proffitt, director of the program, contacted the state
police in 2003 to report his suspicions. The
AP reported that the FBI confirmed the investigation, but declined
to offer further details.
The school was searched by FBI agents early this month. Kara Eslinger,
the superintendent for the West Plains district, told The AP that agents seized computer hard
drives as well as records of people who took CDL tests.
She said the people in question are those who come to take the CDL test
at the school, but who have records showing they were trained elsewhere. The
FBI is not looking at anyone who was trained at the school, Eslinger said.
Of the 520 people who had training elsewhere but took the CDL test at
the school between May 2004 and December 2005, about 60 percent had names that
could be of Middle Eastern origin, according to The AP.
