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Sandy Rathbun Reports
Task Force busts Tucson fake immigration ID operation

June 22, 2006, 09:57 PM EDT

A state task force cracking down on fake IDs raided six residencies in Tucson Thursday morning.

The operation was called "Operation X Fake ID."

Arizona's Fradulent Identification Task Force arrested 11 individuals suspected of making fake IDs for illegal immigrants.

Governor Janet Napolitano created the unit last summer.

Napolitano says, "We know that in terms of facilitating illegal immigration, one of the key factors is the ability to get false documentation that will be accepted by entities such as employers."

Law officers confiscated more than $5,000 in cash, computers and fake IDs including Permanent Resident cards, Social Security cards and driver's licenses.

The raids were the task force's first in Tucson.

They came after undercover officers posing as illegal immigrants bought false documents for about $60 each.

Leesa Berens Morrison, director of Arizona's Fraudulent Identification Task Froce, says, "They're not complex operations. There're scanners, there're computers. And once they get the template and the blanks it doesn't take a lot to create the fake ID."

Investigators describe the suspects as major manufacturers who could have been creating hundreds of fake IDs a day.

The task force wants the public's help in making more arrests.

The number to report information about manufacturing and selling fake IDs is (866) XFakeID.







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