TN: Two suspected illegals charged with running fake documen

Two suspected illegals charged with running fake document mill in Morristown

Posted: 3:37 PM Jan 23, 2008
Last Updated: 11:44 PM Jan 23, 2008
Reporter: Liz Tedone

Morristown Police have two people in jail after breaking up a false document business.

Volunteer TV's Liz Tedone has the story.


Immigration and customs has put a detainer on these two men because it's not clear if they're in this country legally. The business they're accused of running may've helped others just like themselves.

Fake resident alien cards, passports, driver's licenses, social security cards. All found at the homes of these two men. Humberto Cea and Rene Bautista are sitting in the Hamblen County Jail, possibly awaiting a deportation hearing, and each charged with four counts of criminal simulation.

When officers raided this house at 1105 Sherwood Drive, and this house at 423 Walters Drive Tuesday night, they found all the makings for a false document business.

"We think they had been doing this for some time and they had a broad base of where they were doing this," Morristown Police Chief Roger Overholt said.

Morristown police say the two sold a false document to an undercover officer to warrant the arrest, but the original tip on the investigation came from drugs.

"From our narcotics investigation, we spun this investigation off of that. We've investigated it for several months and was able to find out the mill did exist," Overholt said.

Cea and Bautista gave police their personal false identification at the time of their arrests. This is the second false document business to be disrupted in the Morristown area in as many years.

Police have no way of knowing how many people Cea and Bautista have supplied with false identification. Inside one of the houses, they did find a ledger of receipts and orders that was several pages long and there was evidence they were wiring money to Mexico.

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