Police go undercover: Passable Social Security cards, licenses procured in Norcross in three hours, detectives say. Men arrested now face deportation.

By ANDRIA SIMMONS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 12/21/07

They are coveted by illegal immigrants who want to appear legitimate — fake Social Security cards, driver's licenses and alien residency cards.

Authorities say a band of five men arrested in Gwinnett County last week met market demands by cranking out and selling those phony documents, sometimes within three hours of receiving an order.


Kimberly Smith/AJC
(ENLARGE)
Seven men appeared in court Thursday in connection with a counterfeit ID ring. From left: Ismael Boites Dominguez (charges dropped), Jose Espinosa, Larry Galvez-Abner (charges dropped), Milton R. Lopez-Estrada, Arturo Monroy Quintero, Arturo Virgen Bucio and Brando A. Virgen-Leon.

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The men appeared in Gwinnett County Magistrate Court on Thursday to answer to charges related to conspiracy to manufacture, sell and possess counterfeit identification documents. A six-week investigation focused on Gwinnett locations where the counterfeit documents were believed to be bought and sold, said Wilson Cabrera, an investigator with the governor's office of consumer affairs. He expects at least eight more arrests to follow.

"The profit margin is huge," Cabrera said after the hearing. "They spent maybe $15 on materials to make $240."

Cabrera testified Thursday during a probable cause hearing that a confidential informant tipped off investigators with the office of consumer affairs in late October to a counterfeiting ring that had set up shop at the Galleria Mall off Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Singleton Road in Norcross, a shopping center that caters mostly to Hispanics.

The consumer affairs office became involved because it handles identity theft cases. Some of the counterfeit IDs were created using stolen identities, Cabrera said.

"I understand the [Hispanic] community trying to get documents because they are being pressured by employers to produce some kind of documentation to keep working," Cabrera said. "But the other side is people doing this to commit crimes or hide their true identity."

Investigators staged several undercover buys in which they purchased a false Social Security card, Georgia driver's license and alien resident card for $240.

The turnaround time for producing the documents was three hours, Cabrera said.

Detectives then began staking out the Galleria Mall and a second location in the Centro Norcross shopping center at the intersection of Mitchell Road and Buford Highway in Norcross, Cabrera said. After staging a bust at Galleria Mall on Dec. 13, investigators learned the documents were manufactured at an apartment complex off Buford Highway in DeKalb County.

The fake driver's licenses, Social Security cards and alien resident cards look convincing to most officers in a traffic stop, Cabrera said.

The counterfeiters usually split into groups and rotated between locations to avoid detection, he said. Some negotiated deals while others were "runners" who transported Polaroid photos and information that customers provided to the manufacturing location and back, Cabrera said

Potential customers were solicited through word-of-mouth, Cabrera said, and the suspects only sold to customers who were vouched for by someone they had done business with before.

Sue Colussy, with the Catholic Charities Immigration Service in Atlanta, said she understood the temptation for illegal immigrants to secure phony IDs, but said it is a bad solution.

"There are some people who may see the people who prepare these documents as being helpful, but I frankly think they prey on the community," Colussy said. "It is certainly a sign of the desperation that people feel that they need to do things like that in order to stay here, but using false documents can get them in real trouble down the road."

Cabrera characterized the ring as a "major operation" extending along the East Coast from Florida to Delaware, with the Norcross operatives taking orders from out of state.

Authorities said similar operations in Fulton, Cobb and the city of Roswell are under surveillance in conjunction with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Secret Service.

Gwinnett County Magistrate Judge George Hutchinson bound over to Superior Court charges related to the manufacture, sale or possession of fraudulent documents against Brando Alexis Virgen-Leon, 24, Arturo Virgen Bucio, 34, Milton Roberto Lopez-Estrada, 24, Jose Espinosa, 37, and Arturo Monroy Quintero, 29.

The men are being held in the Gwinnett jail without bond. All of the men charged had a hold placed on them from Immigration and Customs for possible deportation, jail records show.