The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been on a mission in recent months to crack down on CDL mills and other avenues that lead to unskilled drivers eventually operating an 80,000-pound commercial motor vehicle.
Earlier this month, a man was sentenced to prison for using a Bluetooth device to feed an individual the answers to exam questions for a commercial learner’s permit. Little did the man know he was feeding those answers to an undercover agent.
Frank Castro, 53, of Roxbury, Mass., was sentenced on May 1 by U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley to time served (about 23 months in prison). In January 2025, Castro was convicted of unlawful production of an identification document. Castro was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2024.
On or about Oct. 18, 2021, Castro told an undercover agent that he could help him obtain a commercial learner’s permit in Massachusetts for $3,000. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, on or about Dec. 10, 2021, Castro explained to the undercover agent that the agent would need to sneak a Bluetooth device into the testing area at a Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, surreptitiously place the device into his ear, then cover it with headphones used during the exam. Castro said that he would be connected with the undercover agent via the Bluetooth device such that he could hear the audio questions and provide the undercover agent with the correct answers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has referred to trucking as the Wild West, and the FMCSA Administrator said it is the agency’s mission to get the bad actors out of the industry. FMCSA has already removed about 7,000 driver training schools from the national registry.
“At the first of the year, we sent investigators across the country to look at the driver training schools to see if they’re complying with the rules and regulations,” Barrs said. “Do they actually have a curriculum to be able to train drivers? Do they have a truck to be able to do the training that’s required? Well, come to find out that wasn’t happening in a lot of the places.” LL
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