stopracism
01-19-2011, 05:29 AM
Five convicted in federal probe of illegal-document ring that stretched from Grand Rapids to Mexico
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/01/five_convicted_in_federal_prob.html
GRAND RAPIDS – Last spring, federal investigators began looking into a ring that produced and sold documents to illegal Hispanic residents in the city.
Police conducted three “controlled buys,” obtaining Social Security and permanent resident cards, before investigators raided an apartment on Seventh Street NW in June. There, they seized computers, laminating machines, card-making machines and other items used to make false documents, and arrested several people for being in this country illegally.
This week, three of the five suspects accused in a large-scale scheme tied to Mexico were convicted of charges in U.S. District Court. Two others pleaded guilty before the four-day trial.
"Evidence established that the document operation was financed by criminal elements from inside Mexico, who not only provided the expensive equipment used in producing high-quality documents that included U.S. Permanent Resident Cards (green cards), Social Security cards, and driver licenses from states such as Michigan, Illinois and North Carolina, but who also dictated which areas within the Greater Grand Rapids area a particular document crew could operate within and received monthly payments from their franchisees," prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the three who went to trial -Eddie Castilla-Lugo, 37, Israel Aremendariz-Becerra, 41, and Miguel Merlos-Gonzalez, 32 – had been staying in Wichita, Kan., shortly before they joined the fraud operation that was already under investigation. Two others, Jose Reyes-Gonzalez, 34, and Eduardo Lopez-Sosa, pleaded guilty to charges before the trial began at the federal courthouse in Kalamazoo.
Soon after the bust, Reyes-Gonzalez, known as “Angel,” told authorities he had made more than 700 false identification documents in the Grand Rapids area, according to court records. Reyes-Gonzalez told authorities that five others arrested in the apartment with him were involved in the organization, with Lopez-Sosa producing up to 200 documents.
One of those arrested at the scene was deported before an indictment was returned.
The men shared the Seventh Street apartment, with Castilla-Lugo taking a bedroom, with new arrivals sleeping on the floor. Reyes-Gonzalez said he handed out cell phones to the “employees,” with business cards given to potential customers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank said the investigation by agents of U.S. Homeland Security and Homeland Security Investigations (formerly U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) showed that the “document trade in the Hispanic community is controlled almost exclusively by illegal aliens – it is a business run by illegal aliens for illegal aliens.”
He said document sellers advertised by distributing “sham business cards” where Hispanics gather.”
When police raided the apartment where the documents were being produced, three of the suspects were hiding in the attic, while another had locked himself in the bathroom and was trying to change his clothes. He had jammed a cell phone in the bottom of a toilet.
Frank said that illegal document making is a priority because of the high-quality documents that can be produced.
“Such documents enable previously deported aliens to remain undiscovered, to establish alternate identities, and to blend into society,” he said.
The defendants face up to 15 years in prison when sentenced later.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/01/five_convicted_in_federal_prob.html
GRAND RAPIDS – Last spring, federal investigators began looking into a ring that produced and sold documents to illegal Hispanic residents in the city.
Police conducted three “controlled buys,” obtaining Social Security and permanent resident cards, before investigators raided an apartment on Seventh Street NW in June. There, they seized computers, laminating machines, card-making machines and other items used to make false documents, and arrested several people for being in this country illegally.
This week, three of the five suspects accused in a large-scale scheme tied to Mexico were convicted of charges in U.S. District Court. Two others pleaded guilty before the four-day trial.
"Evidence established that the document operation was financed by criminal elements from inside Mexico, who not only provided the expensive equipment used in producing high-quality documents that included U.S. Permanent Resident Cards (green cards), Social Security cards, and driver licenses from states such as Michigan, Illinois and North Carolina, but who also dictated which areas within the Greater Grand Rapids area a particular document crew could operate within and received monthly payments from their franchisees," prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the three who went to trial -Eddie Castilla-Lugo, 37, Israel Aremendariz-Becerra, 41, and Miguel Merlos-Gonzalez, 32 – had been staying in Wichita, Kan., shortly before they joined the fraud operation that was already under investigation. Two others, Jose Reyes-Gonzalez, 34, and Eduardo Lopez-Sosa, pleaded guilty to charges before the trial began at the federal courthouse in Kalamazoo.
Soon after the bust, Reyes-Gonzalez, known as “Angel,” told authorities he had made more than 700 false identification documents in the Grand Rapids area, according to court records. Reyes-Gonzalez told authorities that five others arrested in the apartment with him were involved in the organization, with Lopez-Sosa producing up to 200 documents.
One of those arrested at the scene was deported before an indictment was returned.
The men shared the Seventh Street apartment, with Castilla-Lugo taking a bedroom, with new arrivals sleeping on the floor. Reyes-Gonzalez said he handed out cell phones to the “employees,” with business cards given to potential customers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagen Frank said the investigation by agents of U.S. Homeland Security and Homeland Security Investigations (formerly U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) showed that the “document trade in the Hispanic community is controlled almost exclusively by illegal aliens – it is a business run by illegal aliens for illegal aliens.”
He said document sellers advertised by distributing “sham business cards” where Hispanics gather.”
When police raided the apartment where the documents were being produced, three of the suspects were hiding in the attic, while another had locked himself in the bathroom and was trying to change his clothes. He had jammed a cell phone in the bottom of a toilet.
Frank said that illegal document making is a priority because of the high-quality documents that can be produced.
“Such documents enable previously deported aliens to remain undiscovered, to establish alternate identities, and to blend into society,” he said.
The defendants face up to 15 years in prison when sentenced later.