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Two arrested, five detained in ID fraud
Originally published July 28, 2006
maryland


Two men were arrested in Westminster and five other people were detained by immigration officials in connection with an investigation into the manufacture of false identification cards, authorities said yesterday.

The two, Jiovani Vargas Zavala, 21, and Luis Perez Ortega, 25, both of the 300 block of E. Main St. in Westminster, were charged with possession of fraudulent identification and stolen property, police said.

Three other men who lived in the same Main Street apartment as Zavala and Ortega - Jose Joel Pavon Salazar, Roberto Salazar Pavon, and Noe Salazar Pavon - were taken into custody by agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch for immigration violations, police said. Two others also taken into custody at that location for immigration violations were not identified.

Westminster police and the federal agents executed a search-and-seizure warrant at the apartment on Main Street after receiving information that the occupants were allegedly making false identification cards, including foreign drivers' licenses, and Social Security and permanent resident cards, police said.

Investigators said they seized a desktop computer, a color printer and a card laminator.

Zavala and Ortega were released by the court on $10,000 unsecured bond. But they were then detained at another location by federal agents for immigration violations, police said.


[David P. Greisman]