2 are held in bust of bogus ID operation (traveling fraudulent documents ring)

NORTH BERGEN -- The Pelcastre brothers were a walking threat to national security -- expert document forgers who, for a few thousand dollars, could give anyone a new identity, authorities said Thursday.

When police stumbled across the pair, the men had turned a Tonnelle Avenue hotel room into a business office and were readying a massive cache of fake Social Security cards for delivery to a local identity broker, authorities said.

The brothers, Angel, 31, and Jorge, 34, both of Dallas, were a "one-stop shop" for a myriad of government documents, including birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver's licenses for any state in the country, passports and resident alien cards, said state police Capt. Al Della Fave. "Can you imagine if a terrorist were able to get their hands on this stuff?" Della Fave said. "They'd have free passage throughout the country."

A task force including state troopers and officers from both the Bergen and Hudson county prosecutors' offices happened upon two cars bearing Texas plates in the parking lot of the hotel Wednesday morning. Authorities wouldn't identify the hotel by name for fear it could hinder cooperation from other hotels in future investigations or spark retribution. The Corporate Outreach Task Force, formerly the Hotel Motel Drug Interdiction Task Force, regularly runs checks on motor vehicles in area motels.

Members of the task force began watching the cars, a Chevrolet Impala and a Pontiac Firebird, and followed the brothers to an office supply store in a nearby shopping center, where the men purchased computer supplies, said state police Sgt. Stephen Jones. Officers then followed the brothers to a self-storage facility in Secaucus, where they loaded several boxes from a storage unit into one of the cars, Jones said.

One of the men stood lookout, which heightened police suspicion, he said. Authorities approached the men when they returned to the hotel and questioned them separately, Jones said. The brothers consented to a search of their cars, hotel room and the storage facility, he said.

Police recovered laminating sheets with built-in security features, pages of blank documents waiting for fake names and information, finished documents, computers and software to create the fake IDs, Jones said. All told, the haul was worth about $500,000 on the street, Della Fave said. Police also recovered $6,000 in cash, which was the first payment from a fake document broker for a shipment of 500 Social Security cards, Della Fave said.

"They were aggressively selling to brokers," he said. "This isn't like selling driver's licenses to individuals. These were multiple layers of high-level documents." The brothers were being held without bail Thursday at the Hudson County Jail on charges of possessing fraudulent documents and conspiracy to sell fraudulent documents. Federal charges are also pending against them, said state police Detective Sgt. Cesar Huaman, a member of the task force.

There's countless news stories about these invaders buying fake and forged documents that enables them to cash in bigtime, to get all the US gov't benefits they can get their filthy hands on.

We are threatened by an invading foreign force with no allegiance to our Nation that has threatened to takeover with the vote and with violence, if necessary.

One of the mosy insightful comments was posted by FReeper eakole after one of the infamous street marches: "These scofflaws and criminals do not only want American jobs, they also want all the rights of American Citizens with the intent to inflict upon us the failed customs, politics, and ignorance that frame the foundation of Mexico’s class-conscious tyranny, universal lawlessness and eternal poverty."

Americans are defending our precious citizenship against those who would devalue it, who are dragging our country down into anarchy. As American patriots recently gathered to celebrate our 230 years of independence as a great nation, we are reminded how easily our freedoms, and our way of life, can be taken away from us.

EXCERPT: ID-FRAUD GAL GETS 3 TO 6
(5,000 forged SS cards, govt-IDs, driver's licenses, from 11 states)

AP July 8, 2006 -- A woman was sentenced to three to six years in prison for helping run an identity-fraud ring that supplied fake driver's licenses, Social Security
cards and resident-alien IDs to thousands of people. Maricruz Chavez, 31, of Queens, pleaded guilty last month to attempted enterprise corruption. She was sentenced on Thursday to three to six years in prison and made to forfeit $7,560. Queens prosecutors said Chavez admitted to running the ring. The investigation has led to 17 other convictions. More than 5,000 forged government-ID documents were seized, including 700 driver's licenses from 11 states, prosecutors said.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/id_fraud_gal_gets_3_to_6_regionalnews_.htm

Some Immigrants Are Offering Social Security Numbers for Rent

NY Times | 6/7/2005 | EDUARDO PORTER

FR Posted on 06/06/2005 11:57:25 PM EDT by nj26

Gerardo Luviano is looking for somebody to rent his Social Security number. Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. But these days, back in Mexico, teaching beekeeping at the local high school in this hot, dusty town in the southwestern part of the country, Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number.

So he is looking for an illegal immigrant in the United States to use it for him - providing a little cash along the way. "I've almost managed to contact somebody to lend my number to," Mr. Luviano said. "My brother in California has a friend who has crops and has people that need one."

Mr. Luviano's pending transaction is merely a blip in a shadowy yet vibrant underground market. Virtually undetected by American authorities, operating below the radar in immigrant communities from coast to coast, a secondary trade in identities has emerged straddling both sides of the Mexico-United States border. The number of people participating in the illegal deals is impossible to determine accurately.

But it is clearly significant, flourishing despite efforts to combat identity fraud. "There are people who live in Mexico who take $4,000 or $5,000 in unemployment in the off season," said Jorge Eguiluz, a labor contractor working in the fields around Stockton, Calif. "They just lend the number during the season." The deals also generate cash in other ways. Most identity lending happens within an extended family, or among immigrants from the same hometown. But it is still a hard-nosed transaction. Illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little they are owed an income tax refund at the end of the year. The illegal immigrant "working the number" will usually pay the real owner by sharing the tax refund.

Since legal American residents can lose their green cards if they stay outside the country too long, for those who have returned to Mexico it is useful to have somebody working under their identity north of the border. "There are people who live in Mexico who take $4,000 or $5,000 in unemployment in the off season," said Jorge Eguiluz, a labor contractor working in the fields around Stockton, Calif. "They just lend the number during the season." The deals also generate cash in other ways. Most identity lending happens within an extended family, or among immigrants from the same hometown. But it is still a hard-nosed transaction.

Illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little they are owed an income tax refund at the end of the year. The illegal immigrant "working the number" will usually pay the real owner by sharing the tax refund. "Sometimes the one who is working doesn't mind giving all the refund, he just wants to work," said Fernando Rosales, who runs a shop preparing income taxes in the immigrant-rich enclave of Huntington Park, Calif. "But others don't, and sometimes they fight over it. We see that all the time. It's the talk of the place during income tax time."

The income tax "refund" is almost certainly generated by Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) fraud, which as a "legal resident" the number renter would qualify to receive, especially if they have have or claim children. The EITC is a "refundable tax credit, which means the IRS will pay it out even if no taxes have been withheld or paid in. So the IRS gives filers who claim the EITC "refunds," even if they have had no taxes withheld. These number renters can claim up to $4,400 for the 2005 tax year in EITC "refunds," most of the number renters probably claim this maximum refund.

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