Thread: Counterfeiting operations becoming more prevalent in area

http://nwanews.com/nwat/News/40603/

Counterfeiting operations becoming more prevalent in area
BY TRISH HOLLENBECK Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/40603/

Acting on a tip, the Springdale Police Department and Immigration & Customs Enforcement authorities in April responded to what appeared to be a lab for making counterfeit Mexican IDs.

They did a "knock and talk" with Jose Luis Rascon-Mendoza, 34, who was arrested April 4. He was charged this week with criminal possession of a forgery device and second-degree forgery, and is being held in the Washington County Jail on $5,000 bond.

Allegedly found at the apartment from which he was working were four computers, a digital camera, a laminating machine, a laminate sheet with Mexican state seals, photo paper, counterfeit Mexican and state identification cards and counterfeit Social Security cards.

Counterfeiting identification operations are becoming more prevalent as it becomes easier — via computers and templates — and cheaper to make counterfeit Mexican driver’s licenses/IDs, U.S. Social Security cards and state driver’s licenses, according to Springdale Police Det. Al Barrios.

Barrios said Rascon-Mendoza was manufacturing Mexican driver’s licenses and purchasing U.S. state driver’s licenses/IDs, alien resident cards and Social Security cards for resale.

During the last couple of years, Barrios said, such activity has become more common.

It is cheaper now to make and buy counterfeits, while authentic IDs stolen for use are more expen- sive — a Social Security card and birth certificate, for instance, run in the $800 range. On the other hand, if an illegal immigrant wants to buy a counterfeit Social Security card or U.S. driver’s license, it is much less expensive. In Mendoza’s case, it reportedly was $100 for a Social Security card.

Also commonly used, Barrios said, are Mexican driver’s licenses — used to "throw off" law enforcement when illegals are pulled over on traffic stops. It is difficult for local law enforcement to identify whether Mexican state driver’s licenses are authentic, so an illegal immigrant may use them to claim they have only been in the country for a few months. These, too, are relatively cheap, $50 per card.

Fake Social Security, resident alien and U.S. driver’s licenses are also used to obtain jobs, Barrios said. Fake Social Security cards may be used to obtain U.S. state driver’s licenses, but officials with the Department of Motor Vehicles are becoming keener to whether the cards are authentic.

While he identified Rascon-Mendoza as a small dealer, Barrios said another man, Pablo Rivera, also of Springdale, was involved in a counterfeit ring that extended to other states. He was nabbed in August via a joint Springdale Police Department/Immigration & Customs Enforcement investigation.

Rivera, who had worked out of Apartment M205 at Eastwood Apartments in Springdale, has been convicted of first-degree forgery and possession of a forgery device and is serving an eight-year prison sentence.

He reportedly had ties to a national ring that uses smuggled illegal immigrants to make counterfeit identification documents.

There were other, related arrests made as part of this investigation, Barrios said, and some of the probe even resulted in drug arrests.

The way counterfeiting operations work, Barrios said, is similar to the way drug dealers operate. He said the counterfeiting labs are set up in purported residences, but these places are used solely for counterfeiting. Rings have an infrastructure of counterfeiters.

Potential customers contact the counterfeiters via bogus business cards with cell phone numbers on them. They agree to meet at another location and provide money, a photo and other information the counterfeiter needs. Then they meet again away from the lab to pick up their orders.

He said operations that deal in counterfeit IDs may also be involved in smuggling and human trafficking.

As quickly as one operation is shut down, Barrios said, another one takes its place, whether it is freelancers or rings. "There’s a huge demand for it in this area," Barrios said.

Barrios said they take advantage of people, he said, and do not care if customers get caught. "They’re basically just wanting to make money off of illegal aliens," he said.

$5,000? thats it? they should fine these guys the cost to American taxpayers. For every fake ID they produce, fine them the cost of medical, lost tax revenue, Fed and State. Start with a minimum of 20 ID's and multiply up from there. $5,000 is a joke considering what those ID's cost the US.

Originally Posted by Xianleather

$5,000? thats it? they should fine these guys the cost to American taxpayers. For every fake ID they produce, fine them the cost of medical, lost tax revenue, Fed and State. Start with a minimum of 20 ID's and multiply up from there. $5,000 is a joke considering what those ID's cost the US.

If it was an American the fine wouild be no less than $25,000

Does this tell you that all and any of these can be used to vote?? Would like to see how many just cruise into our elections and what is to stop them?

And these are the wonderful people who immeasurably contribute to our economy as illegal alien advocates and politicians would have you believe. This schumck of a president and congress is so concerned with social security in danger of collapse, federal spending out of control and a trillion dollar budget deficit but turn a blind eye to the millions of illegal aliens who use fraudulent documents to bilk taxpayers out of billions of dollars every year.