Thread: 7 suspects arrested in Cicero accused of ID forgery

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... &cset=true

By Michael Higgins
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 22, 2005


Federal agents have shut down a crime ring that sold about $2.5 million in fake identification documents a year in the Little Village area, arresting seven men with ties to Mexican organized crime, authorities announced Wednesday.

The ring has ties to the Castorena crime family, which has controlled most of the fake document business in the U.S. for the last decade, officials of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said.

"This was very important," said Gail Montenegro, an ICE spokeswoman. "They are a very large criminal enterprise."

ICE agents and Cicero police arrested the men Nov. 15 in a home in Cicero where authorities say they were producing the fake identification. Those arrested included Manuel Leija-Sanchez, 38, whom authorities believe heads the Chicago branch of the Castorena organization.

Pedro Castorena-Ibarra, leader of the Castorena crime family, is one of ICE's top 10 most wanted fugitives, officials said.

The defendants were held on immigration charges initially, ICE officials said. They were then charged with forgery and appeared Tuesday in Cook County Criminal Court.

Bail for Sanchez was set at $300,000, a spokesman for Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine said.

ICE officials had been investigating the crime ring for about a year. The group operated mostly out of Little Village, but manufactured cards in a home on South Lombard Avenue in Cicero, ICE officials said.

Stopping the flow of fake documents is a high priority, said Gary Hartwig, acting special agent-in-charge of the ICE Chicago Office of Investigations.

The raid on the residence found computers, ID card printers, scanners, laminating pouches and dozens of counterfeit identification cards, ICE officials said.

Other defendants in the case are: Sergio Ramirez-Ramirez, 29; Gerardo Salazar-Rodriguez, 32; Victorino Aparicio-Lopez, 27; Gerardo Jimenez-Moran, 29; Raul Hernandez-Cervantes, 43; and Gabriel Rojas-Ramirez, 24.

All the defendants are Mexican nationals who were in the U.S. illegally, ICE officials said.

OK, this is the THIRD time today I've seen this same story. LOL