Fake-ID operation busted
Thousands of documents, blank plastic cards seized
BY JANICE MORSE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER



HAMILTON - An illegal immigrant with guts - but maybe not smarts - unwittingly launched the investigation that produced Ohio's largest-ever fake-ID bust, Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones said Friday.

Gregorio Cruz presented a doctored-up ID card to the sheriff's office, which is known for its anti-illegals stance.

"He came to really the wrong place," Jones said.


Cruz had to walk past the jail's "illegal immigrants here" sign when he visited the sheriff's headquarters Nov. 28 to ask officials to run a criminal background check on him. A native of Mexico, Cruz wanted to be able to show a clean criminal record to a prospective employer.

But an alert clerk noticed something odd about Cruz's ID card. Those concerns led to an investigation.

The results: Cruz, 31, of Hamilton, and two other Hamilton men are in the county jail on felony charges as officials continue sorting through boxes of evidence - including more than 4,000 blank plastic cards - that could lead to more arrests.

The local fake-ID operation "may have tentacles everywhere," Jones said. Investigators were trying to figure out how long it had been active.

Jones said the bust highlights national security problems that make the U.S. vulnerable to terrorists and criminals. Some of the bogus IDs were of such high quality that police officers, airline ticketing agents and others likely would be duped, Jones said.

"It's totally out of control, and we'd better get a grip on it," he said.

Jones said society pays many costs for tolerating illegal immigration.

"This investigation isn't free," Jones said. "It's costing us all - the jails, the courts, the hospitals, the schools."

A retired federal immigration agent who was hired to work for Jones several weeks ago played a key role in the bust by working undercover, Jones said.

Cruz is charged with one count of tampering with records. He was a customer of Ernesto Escalante-Bartolon, 29, who was renting a Fairfield apartment for the sole purpose of making fake documents and IDs, police say.

This week, police searched that apartment and a Hamilton mobile home where Escalante-Bartolon lived.

Known as "Miguel" on the street, Escalante-Bartolon handed out business cards that helped put him in touch with customers who were buying bogus cards at $150 to $200 each, police said.

The sales were happening in public, just blocks away from the jail, Jones said.

Police allege that Escalante-Bartolon is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala - yet he was able to obtain valid driver's licenses under different identities in Tennessee and Michigan, investigators said. Facing 11 record-tampering charges, he was the primary player in the alleged ID ring, police say.

An associate, Nicolas Juan Santiago, 32, a suspected illegal from Mexico, is charged with six record-tampering counts.

Jones said more of the operation's customers could find themselves in jail.

Looking directly into lenses of TV cameras Friday, Jones declared: "We're sending a message. ...If you're buying these (fake IDs), we may already know who you are


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