http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/local ... eid=111703

Man pleads guilty to making fake ID cards
By Carolyn Kessel Stewart / Daily News Staff
Saturday, October 15, 2005

BOSTON -- A Brazilian man caught in an undercover sting last summer pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to making counterfeit Social Security cards and green cards.

HoracioNeto, 39, of 110 Boston Post Road, chose not to have a trial and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to two counts of transferring false documents and one count of possessing document-making implements.

Neto made four fake green cards -- legal work permits -- and four fake Social Security cards for an informant during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation, authorities said.

ICE agents began investigating Neto after they learned from an informant that two men were selling counterfeit green cards and Social Security cards in Marlborough.

In June, the informant made a taped call to Neto and asked for two sets of Social Security and green cards. They met at the Price Chopper parking lot on Rte. 20, and the informant handed over $160 in cash for the cards. The ID numbers on the documents were either invalid or assigned to other people, according to an affidavit.

For the second deal, Neto and the informant arranged to meet again at the Price Chopper parking lot. Neto and the informant then went to 195 Main St., an apartment Neto was allegedly using as a makeshift office to forge IDs. The informant then paid him $160 for another pair of Social Security cards and green cards.

On Aug. 10, Neto was arrested in the early morning leaving the East Main Street apartment. Agents then searched the apartment and found equipment to make fake IDs, including an HP Compaq computer hard drive, an E-Machine computer hard drive, a bag of miscellaneous papers, completed and partially completed counterfeit documents and a plastic bag containing five completed counterfeit documents.

Neto had lived in the city for more than four years and worked at a local horse farm before he was arrested, neighbors and friends said.

Sentencing is scheduled Jan. 9. Neto faces up to 15 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine on each count of the indictment. Neto also faces possible deportation to Brazil after completing any prison sentence.