Thread: Stepdaughter Exposes Reported False Document Human Smuggling

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4003870

Family business
Stepdaughter exposes reported false document human smuggling and Social Security fraud ring
By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer





(Suad Leija)

Suad Leija has many secrets.
The stepdaughter of Manuel Leija-Sanchez -- a key figure in what federal authorities believe is a document fraud organization run by the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families -- has been in hiding and on the run from her own family.

To help U.S. authorities crack down on document fraud, human smuggling and a host of other international crimes, she has revealed her family business, identified relatives and shed light on a series of national security failures.

Fraudulent documents allegedly produced by the families include Social Security cards, driver's licenses, passports, hazardous materials licenses, utility bills and a variety of other forms of identification. To one degree or another, all can be used to board aircraft, transport dangerous materials, earn employment at secure government facilities, and otherwise help illegal immigrants blend into the fabric of American life.

Last week, a Pomona man was charged with felony distribution of false government documents after San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies found allegedly fake green cards in his vehicle during a traffic stop. Police said they later found a sophisticated counterfeiting operation at Perfecto Cruz's home, where they allege he produced fake green cards, driver's licenses and Social Security cards. Cruz pleaded not guilty to the charges.

That case provides a homegrown example of the ease of distribution and the proliferation of document fraud across the U.S. His alleged operation, although reportedly smaller than the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families' international network, still poses a national security nightmare for law enforcement and immigration officials.


FAMILY BUSINESS

Suad's secrets, now revealed, have put her life in danger. Her stepfather -- Manuel Leija-Sanchez, 38, who is nearing the end of a one-year prison term in Chicago for document fraud -- has threatened to kill her upon his release, she said. That threat is known to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

But the crimes being committed by her family are more important than her own life, Suad said. Her hope is that her family's multimillion-dollar criminal organization will be dismantled completely before something far worse than the Sept. 11,2001, terrorist attacks occurs.

Her biggest fear: The family has already exposed the United States to that very threat.

"They don't really care who they sell the documents to,'' said
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Suad, a petite, 22-year-old woman with an easy laugh whose youth belies her experiences.

During a lengthy interview with the Daily Bulletin, and several follow-up phone conversations, Suad revealed details about her family's criminal enterprise that only she and the government had previously known.

"The more money the better -- it's a business to them. Most of my family was and is here illegally ... but in Mexico, my stepfather owns gyms, hotels and many other businesses that he's purchased with the money from the documents. He knows many people and has many connections. They are all very dangerous people.''

In a 2003 report on Mexican organized crime and terrorism, by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, the Castorena family of Mexico is described as one of the largest document fraud organizations operating in the United States. Based in Guadalajara, it is a vast network of document forgery rings working for nearly 20 years in all 50 states.

"The Castorena organization is suspected of making hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sales of fraudulent documents,''said Dean Boyd, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, D.C. "They typically charge between $80 and $200 per document, depending on the quality.''

With an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, perhaps more, living in the United States and millions more coming every year, document fraud and national security have taken center stage on Capitol Hill. Hard-line congressional leaders, bent on stronger national security, are fighting a Senate bill they believe offers amnesty to illegal immigrants, who by definition have broken the law.

ICE agents have connected fraudulent documents made by the Castorenas to the Leija-Sanchez family. The two families have worked together since their organization got its start in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s.

"Back then, they were one of the few organizations to have industrialized printing presses,'' Boyd said. "They had the card stock and the technology that allowed for mass production. Other organizations depended on them for the industrialized printing press, and that's when their business started booming.''

And the organization keeps growing, Suad said.



MISSING LINKS

Until this year, the alleged connection between the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families was relatively unknown. The link became clear in November, when ICE agents arrested Manuel Leija-Sanchez. It solidified when Suad arrived in the U.S. from Mexico earlier this year to assist U.S. agents in identifying family members.

She came at the behest of her husband, a U.S. intelligence agent investigating the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families. Though he spoke with the Daily Bulletin, Suad's husband asked to remain anonymous to protect Suad and his identity.

Manuel Leija-Sanchez was taken into custody after ICE agents and police raided a home in Cicero, Ill., a southwestern suburb of Chicago. The agents uncovered a sophisticated document fraud lab in the private residence that held computers, ID card printers and scanners.

ICE agents connected the ringleader -- Suad's stepfather -- to Pedro Castorena, son of Don Alfonso Castorena, one of ICE's 10 most-wanted fugitives. The agents arrested seven Mexican nationals at the Cicero house, including Manuel Leija-Sanchez. All of them were illegal immigrants, said Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for ICE in Chicago.

"We know that the Leijas and the Castorenas have been connected since the organization began in Los Angeles,'' Montenegro said. "I can't confirm that it's the biggest in the United States, but I can confirm that the (Chicago operation) is one of the biggest operations in the country.''

In early June, Suad was invited to speak privately to congressional leaders in Washington, D.C., about national security and document fraud. Two weeks later, on June 17, U.S. and Mexican authorities arrested Pedro Castorena in Guadalajara.

Castorena was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in Denver in July 2005 on charges of conspiracy, fraud, misuse of visas, and money laundering.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver is waiting for Mexico to extradite Castorena to the United States. Suad is expected to testify against him.

"The Castorena family made their home in Denver, and my family lived in Chicago,'' Suad said. "But both families are one and the same cartel. They control the whole fraud business in almost every major city in the nation.''

Though both alleged ringleaders -- Manuel Leija-Sanchez and Pedro Castorena -- have been taken into custody, the cartel operation continues because the family has grown so powerful, "nobody ever really stopped them,'' Suad said.

Federal authorities in the late 1990s made a dent in the Castorena's Los Angeles cell, arresting a cartel operations chief and seizing millions of documents worth about $20 million. But that bust barely slowed the operation, which had spread to cities across the U.S.

Manuel Leija-Sanchez's brothers, Julio and Pedro, also are allegedly high-ranking members of the organization. In 2000, Pedro Leija-Sanchez was arrested for document fraud and other felony charges in Texas, and was sentenced to five years in prison. Pedro, who is considered by U.S. authorities to be extremely dangerous, was using false identification and was booked into prison as Robert Perez. After his release last year, he fled to Mexico.

In November, after Manuel Leija-Sanchez's arrest, Julio Leija-Sanchez came from Mexico to run the organization in Chicago, according to Suad. E-mail communication between Suad and ICE agents, obtained by the Daily Bulletin, contains surveillance photos taken in April of Julio Leija-Sanchez in Chicago. In the e-mail, an ICE agent asked Suad to identify the men in the surveillance photos.

"I gave the ICE agents everything I know about my family,'' she said. "But now I feel like I have placed my own life in danger, and not ICE or anyone -- only my husband -- can protect me.''

Suad is not in a witness protection program, though she keeps her whereabouts secret and moves frequently. ICE officials said they could not discuss her part in the Castorena/Leija-Sanchez investigation.

"I told (the congressmen) about Pedro and my stepfather, and how they worked together in the cartel,'' Suad said. "I told them about my family and their connections to the Russians, Polish people and the possible threat they pose to this country.''



POVERTY TO RICHES

Though the document-forging operation started in Los Angeles, it's been in Chicago more than 15 years, and Suad's family moved from Santa Monica to Chicago along with Pedro Castorena and his wife. Pedro Castorena also is godfather to Suad's younger sister, Shirley.

Pedro Castorena and Manuel Leija-Sanchez operated out of a Chinese laundry in Chicago, where hundreds of documents were sold every day, Suad said. The men, along with other family members, would count the earnings daily.

"One thousand, two thousand and sometimes five thousand dollars,'' she said.

Suad recalled how her family went from poverty to riches in only a few years.

"Eventually I would count up to $20,000 myself a night as I got older. I would count the money with others, and I was paid $50 a day. I was so young -- I started counting at 5 years old. I didn't understand until I got older that my family was a part of a major cartel.''

Eventually the organization expanded into a million-dollar business, Suad said, and spread to Atlanta, Las Vegas, Miami, Denver and New York.

While in Chicago, Suad and her younger sister were sent to Catholic school, and her father hired Polish bodyguards to protect them.

Antoni Gradski, a Pole, was allegedly Manuel Leija-Sanchez's right-hand man and Suad's caretaker. The family had several Polish guards and workers, Suad added.

"I thought they were Russian,'' she said, moving freely from Spanish to English and then to Russian, which she learned from Gradski. "Gradski protected me, but I haven't spoken to him since I separated from my family. I fear for his life because of what I've done.''

The connections between the cartel and other countries is one reason why organizations such as the Castorenas and Leija-Sanchezes need to be fully investigated, said Rosemary Jenks, an attorney and director of government relations for Numbers U.S.A., a nonprofit organization advocating reduced immigration to the United States.

"Criminal organizations such as the Castorena/Leija-Sanchez crime family have placed our nation at serious risk,'' Jenks said. "We have allowed these criminal enterprises to grow to massive extents. We are overwhelmed with illegal immigration. They have connections all over the world, and now we have no idea who is in our country and who these people have sold documents to.''




TIES TO TERROR?

In December, Suad and her husband went to Mexico City when her grandfather, Natividad Leija Herrera, the reputed head of the Leija-Sanchez family, told her that her stepfather had been arrested.

The family was hoping Suad's husband, an American, would help get her father out of jail, she said. Her relatives had no idea her husband worked for the U.S. government.

During the visit, Suad and her husband met with Natividad and her uncle, Juan Luis Echeveste, who is Natividad's bodyguard. She asked what would happen if the family's fake documents ever fell into the hands of a terrorist trying to enter the U.S.

The answer was frightening, Suad said.

"My grandfather said, `Terrorism is an American problem, not a Mexican problem. The organization is about money. Money is the business.'?''

Suad wonders if terrorists are already in the United States using documents her family produced.

And she has good reason.

"Document fraud has already killed thousands of people,'' said Boyd, the ICE spokesman. "Two of the terrorists who crashed the planes into the World Trade Center could board the plane because they (had) fraudulent documents.''


CASTORENA CRIME FAMILY

• Based in Mexico

• 100 key members oversee cells of 10 to 20 individuals in cities across the United States

• Cells deal in document fraud, human smuggling and narcotics trafficking

• Six Castorena siblings are at the top of the organization


ICE'S CASTORENA INVESTIGATION

• In Los Angeles in the late 1990s, agents seized millions of counterfeit documents estimated to be worth about $20 million.

• Documents were linked to more than 400 investigations and seizures in more than 50 cities in 33 states.

• American Express attributed $2 million in losses to the family fraud business.

• In Denver, ICE investigations have led to the criminal prosecution of more than 50 members of the cartel.

• Dozens of members of the cartel have been deported to Mexico since the 1990s.


-- Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement





Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552

Yep, Bush et al, the illegals come here to work, and have strong family values.

At least the stepdaughter helped.

Remember criminals have very strong "family values".....ever seen the Godfather??

gofer,

You're right. But criminal's family values extend only to their family, not yours or mine. Where we, for the most part, care about our huge family, our country.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/search/ci_4005819

Authorities fight document fraud as terror threat

By Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

One day in the winter of 1996, while 12-year-old Suad Leija was getting ready for school, more than a dozen armed FBI agents raided her family's Chicago-area home.

They were looking for her stepfather, Manuel Leija-Sanchez, who federal authorities believe runs a document-fraud network -- producing fake passports, Social Security cards, driver's licenses and a variety of other official papers -- with cells throughout the United States.

That cold morning, the agents were too late.

Manuel Leija-Sanchez had fled during the night to Mexico after he was tipped off to the impending raid, his stepdaughter recalled.

The business continued to flourish, and it would be almost 10 years before authorities would catch up with her stepfather again.

Suad's family is a major part of the much larger Castorena crime organization based in Guadalajara, federal law-enforcement agencies assert and Suad has confirmed. Since the mid-1990s, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, have worked to dismantle the fraud cartel.

ICE officials recently questioned the now 22-year-old Suad, who has voluntarily given up vital information about her family to U.S. authorities. She hopes that her family's organization and the Castorena network -- whose documents have been found in all 50 states -- will be taken apart before their highly coveted papers end up in the hands of terrorists.

Still, she cannot be certain some of those documents haven't already been sold to people bent on doing harm to the United States.

"I just hope it is not too late,'' she said in a recent interview with the Daily Bulletin.

In November, the Department of Homeland Security announced the Secure Borders Initiative, a comprehensive multi-year plan to secure U.S. borders and reduce illegal migration. A key element to the initiative is interior enforcement and investigations focusing on document and benefit fraud, said Marc A. Raimondi, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The initiative includes a multi-agency task force formed in April to combat document fraud in the following cities: Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Los Angeles; Newark, N.J.; New York; Philadelphia; and St. Paul, Minn.

Though he did not comment directly on the Castorena nor the Leija-Sanchez families, Raimondi said, "When it comes to document fraud, our goal is to identify all the criminal organizations regardless of their motives and close them down.

"Criminals are motivated by greed and profit, while terrorist organizations are motivated by hate and ideology,'' he added. "The criminal organizations really don't care who their clients are or whether they are feeding terrorists documents meant to harm us.''

Fraud organizations such as the one the Leija-Sanchez and Castorena families allegedly operate already have assisted terrorists in boarding airline flights, ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said.

Fake documents paved the way for the infamous events of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I HAD NO OTHER CHOICE''

On Aug. 2, 2001, Herbert Villalobos and another individual helped Sept. 11 hijackers Abdul Aziz Al Omari and Ahmed Alghamdi obtain fake Virginia residency certificates from a Falls Church attorney, Boyd said.

Al Omari, on board American Airlines Flight 11, and Alghamdi, who boarded United Airlines Flight 175, used the residency certificates, known to agents as "feeder documents,'' to get valid Virginia driver's licenses and ID cards.

"(The) case exemplifies the threat posed by document fraud schemes,'' Boyd said. "The licenses allowed them to board the flights.''

Villalobos, of El Salvador, was convicted in February 2002 and again in August 2005 of aiding and abetting in the production of false documents. Each time, he was sentenced to four months in jail and two years of supervised release, according to ICE officials.

ICE officers deported Villalobos to El Salvador in May, Boyd said.

Suad said her stepfather's organization and the Castorena network --which are essentially one and the same -- are "nothing more than terrorists.''

She says she has been warned by family members that her stepfather is going to kill her for exposing the family. Suad is in hiding and moves constantly. ICE officials have confirmed she has reported the threat on her life.

"I had no other choice,'' she said of her decision to cooperate with U.S authorities. "They have to be stopped.''

GROWTH INDUSTRY

Nearly 12 million illegal immigrants, perhaps more, live in the United States. For a price, the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families reportedly supply forged documents to those who would otherwise not have documentation for employment, travel or government benefits.

Breaking up such syndicates is not an easy task, Boyd said, but with hundreds, possibly thousands, of document-fraud operations in major U.S. cities, the Department of Homeland Security has taken a keen interest in abolishing them.

"We've prosecuted at least 100 people within the Castorena organization since the mid-'90s,'' Boyd said. "You could focus on the street vendor, but you've really got to get the head of the organizations. If you can seize the labs and the ringleaders, then you put a crimp in the organization.''

ICE investigations into members of the Castorena/Leija-Sanchez organization also have yielded millions of dollars in assets and the seizure of fraudulent document labs around the nation, Boyd said.

Still, despite the investigations and arrests, the organization continues to grow through the involvement of extended family members, Suad said.

Manuel Leija-Sanchez, 38, was captured by ICE agents in a Nov. 15, 2005, raid in Cicero, Ill. Suad's stepfather's cell was estimated to have made $2.5 million a year in fake ID sales in the Chicago area alone. Agents confiscated printers, computers, scanners and laminating equipment from a home in the southwestern suburb of Chicago.

In May, Manuel Leija-Sanchez pleaded guilty to possessing fraudulent documents and was sentenced to one year in prison. He is scheduled to be released sometime within the next few months, Suad said. His brother, Julio Leija-Sanchez, moved from Mexico to take over the Chicago operation while her stepfather served time, she added.

Suad wonders why her stepfather -- whom ICE agents and other federal authorities assert heads a major crime operation -- was sentenced to only a year in prison.

Chicago ICE agent Gail Montenegro said her law-enforcement agency is not responsible for the sentence handed down by the Cook County judge, nor for decisions made by the state attorney's office, which prosecuted the case. She also would not discuss details of the investigation into the document-fraud operation, or Suad's dealings with ICE.

"We're going to continue to investigate this document fraud enterprise both here in Chicago and across the United States,'' Montenegro said.

State attorney's officials in Cook County could not be reached for comment on Manuel Leija-Sanchez's case.

Suad returned to the United States from Mexico this year with her husband, a former U.S. government intelligence agent, to tell U.S. law-enforcement officials about her stepfather's operation.

Her husband, who also spoke to the Daily Bulletin, asked to remain anonymous in an effort to protect his identity and for Suad's safety.

In early June, Suad spoke to congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. She also has been interviewed by ICE agents investigating the families' operations in Chicago and Denver, and continues to communicate with ICE via e-mail.

On June 17 -- two weeks after Suad spoke to lawmakers, Mexican authorities -- in cooperation with U.S. officials, arrested Pedro Castorena, head of the Castorena family, in Mexico. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver requested Castorena's extradition from Mexico to the U.S. following his 2005 grand-jury indictment in Denver on charges of conspiracy, fraud and misuse of visas.

A THREAT ON PAPER

In congressional testimony before lawmakers of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security on Oct. 1, 2003, John S. Pistole, assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, warned lawmakers about document-fraud cells and their direct connection to terrorists operating within U.S. borders.

"The ability of an individual to create a well-documented, but fictitious, identity in the United States provides an opportunity for terrorists to move freely within the United States without triggering name-based watch lists that are disseminated to federal, state and local police officers,'' Pistole said. "It also allows them to board planes without revealing their true identity, and in some cases purchase firearms.''

But the issue extends beyond the hazards posed by would-be terrorists. It goes to the ability of illegal immigrants to enter the country without detection, and to pass as legal residents once here.

Senate and House lawmakers have reached a stalemate on immigration reform. A Senate bill would eventually grant amnesty to illegal immigrants who have resided in the United States for five or more years.

But hard-line congressional leaders, who passed one of the toughest immigration-enforcement bills in U.S. history late last year, are not compromising on the Senate's bill, and reform legislation is not expected to pass this year, experts say.

Border Patrol agents have found fraudulent utility bills -- dating back more than five years, and thus proving residency under the Senate's bill --in the possession of those illegally crossing the border into the United States. Many of the immigrants with the documents had never visited or lived in the country, said one Border Patrol agent who requested anonymity.

Fraudulent U.S. documents also are being purchased in Mexico by would-be immigrants hoping reforms granting amnesty will pass this year, according to Border Patrol sources.

"The Castorena/Leija-Sanchez crime organization is about as serious a national security threat as anything else,'' said Suad's husband, who has spent the majority of his adult life in Latin America and Central America. "Something has to be done, and Suad is risking her life to get lawmakers to listen.''

Fraudulent and stolen documents used by alleged terrorists

• A Pakistani detainee who worked as a doctor and guard for the Taliban was detained at John F. Kennedy airport for attempting to enter the U.S. with a forged passport.

• An Iraqi detainee bought a fake Moroccan passport for about $150 and used it to enter Turkey, where he was arrested.

• An Algerian detainee requested asylum in Canada after entering that country with a fake passport.

• A Yemeni detainee acquired a false Yemeni passport and was able to get a Pakistani visa.

• An Algerian detainee obtained a French passport using an alias and used it to travel to London. Cost of the passport: about $530.

• An al-Qaida terrorist cell in Spain used stolen credit cards in fictitious sales scams and for numerous other purchases. They also used stolen telephone and credit cards to call Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon and other countries. False passports and travel documents were used to open bank accounts where money for the mujahedeen movement was sent to and from countries including Pakistan and Afghanistan. Source: Testimony by John S. Pistole, FBI assistant director for counterterrorism, before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, Oct. 1, 2003. Information is from interviews with individuals linked to terrorist organizations.

Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_4020052

False documents pose real danger to United States


Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Reporter Sara A. Carter’s two-part series on a false-document crime ring leads us to three conclusions:
• Suad Leija, the 22-year-old stepdaughter of a key figure in a huge document fraud organization, is an incredibly courageous young woman. She is doing what she can to expose the organization, putting her own life in great peril.

• Document forgers don’t particularly care whether they are selling their wares to a worker seeking a better life for his family or to a terrorist.

• Any serious attempt at immigration reform, whether the enforcement-first legislation passed by the House of Representatives or the more comprehensive Senate version that would base legalization of some illegal immigrants on the time they’ve spent in the United States, will have to involve some sort of solution to the problem of forged documents.

Suad Leija is in hiding from her own family after telling U.S. authorities about the organization run by the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families, which she says produces and sells forged Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, passports, hazardous materials licenses, utility bills and other forms of identification.

Those fake IDs can be used to board aircraft, transport dangerous materials, get jobs at supposedly secure government facilities, among other activities.

Perhaps the most chilling part of her tale was her visit with her grandfather, head of the Leija-Sanchez family, when she asked what would happen if the family’s fake documents fell into the hands of a terrorist trying to enter the United States.

She said her grandfather’s reply was, ‘‘Terrorism is an American problem, not a Mexican problem. The organization is about money. Money is the business.”

This international crime ring needs to be stopped. Yet after Manuel Leija-Sanchez, Suad Leija’s stepfather and No. 2 in the gang hierarchy, was arrested in 2005, he pleaded guilty to possessing fraudulent documents and was sentenced to just one year in prison.

Clearly, forged documents pose a danger to the United States. Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers used forged Virginia residency certificates to get valid driver’s licenses that allowed them to board the doomed flights. A little more than a year ago, the Homeland Security Department arrested 57 illegal immigrants who were working with forged documents at airports, nuclear power plants and other risk-sensitive facilities around the country.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and T.J. Bonner, head of the Border Patrol agents union, have proposed a ‘‘tamperproof” Social Security card or work permit card that would have to be presented by anyone seeking employment. We’re not crazy about a national ID card, but some sort of more secure documents will have to be part of any immigration solution. And of course, that extends beyond just Social Security cards, since a terrorist would have other things than a job on his mind.

The trouble is, nothing is really tamperproof. History shows that criminals will find ways around any technology thrown in their path. But more secure ID documentation must be developed to at least slow down and limit the forgery instances.

When the House and Senate stop their posturing and get to legislating, documentation will have to be part of their calculus.