Document forgeries lead to two arrests

by Chelsea Smith - Feb. 2, 2010 10:05 AM
The Arizona Republic .

Two men were recently arrested on suspicion of forging hundreds of documents for illegal immigrants, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities suspect Eduardo Chavez-Elizalde, 33, and Fedrico Velasco-Lopez, 33, ran the forgery operation to provide undocumented immigrants with fake identification in order to help those immigrants gain employment. Chavez-Elizalde and Velasco-Lopez were both believed to be in the United States illegally.

During a search, sheriff's deputies found weapons, computer equipment and hundreds of suspected forged documents including driver's licenses, Social Security cards and permanent residency cards issued by the federal government.

The fake documents were sold in two locations in Phoenix: at a house at the 4700 block of East Apollo Road and in a trailer at the 3200 block of East Southern Avenue, Lee said.

Chavez-Elizalde and Velasco-Lopez apparently have been running a business for the past six to eight years, Lt. Brian Lee said.

The Sheriff's Department hopes to learn how many people bought the documents and other items. Lee said deputies have to wait until they receive a warrant until they go through the computers that were seized from Chavez-Elizalde and Velasco-Lopez.

"Deputies anticipate a lot of names," Lee said. " . . . and possibly businesses associated with all of the ID forgery."

Maricopa County sheriff's deputies spent six months investigating the pair, which led to the arrest of five illegal immigrants.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoe ... rgery.html