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Feds indict Beach siblings over alleged immigration forgery

By JON FRANK, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 7, 2007

VIRGINIA BEACH - A federal grand jury handed down a 12-count indictment this week against a brother and sister accused of making forged documents for illegal immigrants living and working in southeastern Virginia.
Narciso M. Salas and Maria R. Salas could be sentenced to serve at least four years in federal prison if convicted, according to A ssistant U.S. A ttorney Joe DePadilla, the prosecutor handling the case.
The Salases are accused of selling counterfeit S ocial S ecurity documents and forging documents that allow people to enter and stay in the United States. The federal case comes at a time when the illegal immigration issue in Virginia has attracted national attention.
Virginia Beach police arrested Narciso Salas in March. At the time, they said that hundreds of illegal immigrants had received the documents during the past two years in Virginia Beach and other local cities.
The illegal document business primarily served the region's Mexican community, police said, with customers paying $150 for a Social Security card and another identification card that illegally claimed the person was a permanent resident of the United States.
At times, the documents were ordered after contact with customers was made at El Taco Tote, a Beach taco shop that operates on the weekends in the 900 block of Virginia Beach Blvd., police said.
Business cards listing in Spanish the illegal services were distributed there.
A search warrant filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court in March said police raided a trailer on L ot 257 of the Colony Mobile Home Park at 913 Virginia Beach Blvd. where the Salases lived.
Beach prosecutors are expected to withdraw state charges later this month so the case can proceed in federal court.
The federal indictment describes a finely honed counterfeit operation that included advertisements and order forms.
According to the indictment, the Salases advertised their services in a Spanish-language newspaper. The order forms filled out by customers would allow the documents to be mailed to customers after they were created.
The indictment alleges that Narciso Salas would require some female customers to pose topless for the identification photographs.
The indictment says that the documents were made at an unnamed facility on the Peninsula.
Reach Jon Frank at (757) 222-5122 or jon.frank@pilotonline.com.