Major Phony Document Ring Raided

Displaying more than 2 million bogus green cards and other fake documents worth an estimated $80 million on the street, immigration officials Thursday said they had broken up the largest counterfeiting ring in the country.

“Street prices are going to skyrocket after this,” one Immigration and Naturalization Service agent said to emphasize the magnitude of the seizure.

Los Angeles is the hub for the production and distribution of counterfeit documents, and this raid--billed as “perhaps the biggest in INS history”--destroys the most sophisticated ring among the 10 to 12 organizations that operate in the United States, officials said.

Dozens of INS agents and local officers found the documents “stacked to the roof” along with two printing presses, a platemaking machine, printing plates and bank documents in storage facilities on Sunset and Eagle Rock boulevards late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

They also found driver’s licenses for seven states from California to New Jersey. They seized resident alien cards, proof of insurance forms, INS employment authorization documents, Social Security cards and entry and departure documents with phony INS stamps on them.

The papers were of the finest quality, officials said.

Buyers ranged from illegal immigrants needing papers to get a job to underage college students wanting a fake ID.

The equipment and documents were linked to people arrested last week in related raids in the MacArthur Park and South Gate areas. In those raids, officers netted 141,000 documents, including counterfeit travelers checks and bogus credit cards. They arrested nine people, including Juan San German, 33, the owner of Los Tomatoes restaurant at 1924 W. Olympic Blvd., the alleged ringleader of the organization.

Members of the ring were undocumented immigrants, said Aaron G. Wilson, supervising special agent for the INS. They face charges of counterfeiting and trafficking in counterfeit documents and possessing equipment to make them. Each count carries a maximum of five years imprisonment.

San German’s sister, Rosa San German, is still at large, a fugitive from a Texas counterfeiting warrant issued from a 1995 investigation. Juan San German also faces charges in that investigation and is in custody in Texas.

“His restaurant [in Los Angeles] is closed because we arrested most of its employees, including the cook, for selling documents,” Wilson said.

He said San German’s small restaurant was a front. It had about 100 customers a day, but its employees served up more documents than food, Wilson said.

The seizures and arrests, dubbed Operation Fine Print, were based on undercover work in which officers said they bought documents and watched vendors openly ply their trade. Vendors hawked their wares in the parking lot, in the restaurant and on street corners throughout the neighborhood, officials said.

“They were brazen,” Wilson said. “All up and down Alvarado in an area around MacArthur Park from the 101 Freeway to Olympic [Boulevard], you could see them.”

They stood on street corners, waving a hand with their index finger and thumb forming a U-shape as if it was holding a small card and shouted “Mica! Mica!” at anyone passing by, Wilson said. Mica is the Spanish word for identification, and the sellers of fake identification are known as micaros.

“They would do anything to attract attention,” he said, demonstrating a spin-and-dip, behind-the-back move that was a favorite among the micaros. “In MacArthur Park, we would see college students doing the supersecret handshake and doing a hand-to-hand exchange to get a phony ID.”

Vendors’ methods were so well known, customers seldom had to do more than hand them a photo and say the name of the document they wanted to complete a transaction, Wilson said.

Prices averaged from $40 to $70, but Wilson estimated that the cost would rise to about $200 in Los Angeles to around $300 in other states.

A set of fake documents, including a permanent resident card, a Social Security card and a driver’s license, is usually sold at a discount in Los Angeles for $70 to $100 on the street, officials said.

The most valuable document, an I-94 Record of Entry and Departure with evidence of permanent residence, can sell for $3,000 and is used by undocumented migrants to enter the United States and by smugglers to bring in illegal immigrants.

About 90% of the buyers reportedly are illegal immigrants needing work papers. Others are fugitives needing new identification and people trying to cash stolen welfare checks or use stolen credit cards.

The Los Angeles arrests and seizures grew out of information from informants and evidence seized in 80 investigations scattered across the country that have produced about 10 other arrests.

In this week’s raids, officers found records and equipment at the storage facility on Sunset Boulevard, including instructions for operating a printing press, a machine for making print negatives, printing plates and rollers, four boxes of ammunition, bank records, an ink stamp, bills, notebooks and time sheets.

At the storage facility on Eagle Rock Boulevard, they found the counterfeit documents.

In last week’s raid, officers searched five businesses and residences including the Los Tomatoes restaurant and San German’s home. In addition to Juan San German, they arrested Juan Carlos Lopez-Arana, 19; Jose De Jesus Lopez-Rodrigues, 29; Javier Quintero-Covarrubias, 51; Hector Orozco-Ibarra Sanchez, 25, who is from San Clemente; Porfirio Gonzalez-Perieira, 55; and Porfirio Gonzalez-Salazaar, 29, both of South Gate.