Published: Apr 07, 2008 02:26 PM Modified: Apr 07, 2008 03:43 PM

Four guilty in ring that supplied fake documents


By Titan Barksdale, Staff Writer
Raleigh - Four members of a counterfeit document ring based in the Triangle pleaded guilty today in federal court to conspiracy charges.
Luis Juarez-Diaz, Claudio Daniel Sandoval-Gomez, Carlos Caballero-Franco and Fabian Arturo Ramirez-Galvan helped run an operation that provided illegal immigrants with fake identification documents, a federal indictment says.

The 14-member ring produced thousands of fake documents, including Social Security cards and state driver's licenses, David Bragdon, assistant U.S. attorney, said in court.

Many of the members ran the operation out of houses in Raleigh and Durham, Bragdon said.

They used laptops, cameras and color printers to help produce the documents, according to the indictment.

Federal agents say they became aware of the operation in 2006. Some of the members were under surveillance, and federal agents say they watched them solicit customers at grocery stores.

In February, Juarez, 32, was arrested because he was in the United States illegally — an additional charge to which he and two of the members pleaded guilty today. A few weeks after Juarez's arrest, all of the members of the ring were indicted.

The members who pleaded guilty are scheduled to return for sentencing in July. The others have not been arraigned, Bragdon said.

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