http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2006 ... /111030135

3 arrests made in ID bust

Mike Peters, (Bio) mpeters@greeleytribune.com
November 3, 2006

A father-son business in the downtown Greeley area apparently was used as a center for making false IDs, fake driver's licenses and Social Security cards.

Court records released Thursday allege the father and son made about 300 fake cards in the past three years.

The father, Jose Antonio Lopez-Vidal, 41, and son, Jose Antonio Lopez Jr., 19, were both arrested this week and are being held on $250,000 bond each. Both are being held on 44 counts each of forgery and identity theft. Also arrested at the store was Brenda Araceli Garcia, 22, being held on $20,000 bond on two counts of forgery and one count of identity theft.

All the suspects remain in the Weld County Jail, and police have notified the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to check on their legal status in the United States.

Court records show police sent someone into the store, which was named Casa de Deportes Lopez, 1412 9th St., to ask about a fake driver's license. The store sold soccer equipment and other items, according to Greeley police spokesman Sgt. Joe Tymkowych. But police believe its main business was selling the fake cards.

When officers sent a man into the store, he was told by one of the family members that a fake Colorado ID card or a fake driver's license would cost $190, and a fake Social Security card cost $50. While the man was in the store, they took a digital photo of him and said he would get the Colorado driver's license in about a week. They gave the man a choice of a state for the driver's license or ID -- Colorado, California, Kansas or Nebraska, and asked him what name or description he wanted on the fake card.

The men are accused of taking the photos and written details for the card to a location in Denver where the actual cards were made. When the man returned Monday for his fake license, police made the arrests.

While police aren't certain the IDs were being made for illegal aliens, Tymkowych said they are fairly sure most of the cards went to non-Americans.

In most cases, they used another person's name with the photo they had taken of a customer in their Greeley shop. Those cards led to the charges of identity theft.