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Luis Hernandez is laughing as he sells fake drivers licenses and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants near a park known for shady deals. The joke, to him, is the government's promise to put people like him out of business with a tamperproof ID card. "One way or another, we'll always find a way," said Hernandez, 35, a sidewalk pitchman who is part of a complex counterfeiting network operating around MacArthur Park, a teeming area near downtown. No matter what the federal government does, sellers vow to keep providing authentic-looking IDs for as little as $150, to anyone who wants...

19-year-old threatened Bush's life, created phony Secret Service IDs... A teenager who was charged last year with threatening the lives of President George W. Bush and other federal officials has again been arrested, this time for manufacturing bogus U.S Secret Service credentials. Acting on an anonymous telephone tip, federal agents yesterday arrested Peter Bonfiglio, 19, at the New York City residence he shares with his grandparents. According to a federal criminal complaint, a copy of which you can find below, Bonfiglio admitted to manufacturing and selling the Secret Service IDs and even showed agents the computer and printer he was...

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 23, 2006 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] Missile Defense Systems (MDS) has taken delivery of the aircraft for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) program, achieving the first of several key milestones in the laser gunship effort. The C-130H transport, which belongs to the U.S. Air Force's 46th Test Wing, was handed over to Boeing on Jan. 18 in Crestview, Fla., near Eglin Air Force Base. Boeing is modifying the aircraft to enable it to carry a high-energy chemical laser and battle management and beam control subsystems. Boeing will begin flight testing the aircraft this summer with all subsystems...

Boeing sipped a double shot of good news Friday, sealing up a billion-dollar support contract for a Navy fighter and reportedly nearing a $10 billion pact to supply planes to Singapore Air. The Navy contract was confirmed Thursday night in Washington. Boeing will provide logistics support for the Super Hornet fighter jet for an initial five years for $995 million. If all options are exercised, the deal could run 10 years and be worth $2.9 billion. The Singapore Air deal was reported Friday in the Wall Street Journal. According to the paper, Boeing is poised to beat out Airbus to...

44 INDICTED IN LANDMARK MARRIAGE FRAUD INVESTIGATION Probe targets Orange County network that arranged sham marriages primarily for Asian aliens SANTA ANA, Calif. - A total of 44 individuals, many of them based in Orange County’s Little Saigon, have been indicted for their roles in an elaborate scheme to obtain fraudulent immigrant visas for hundreds of Chinese and Vietnamese nationals based on sham marriages to U.S. citizens. The 13 separate indictments stem from a three-year, multi-agency investigation known as Operation “Newlywed Game.” The probe, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is believed to be one of the...

NASHUA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SELLING COUNTERFEIT IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS NASHUA, NH-Matthew J. Etre, acting special agent-in-charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and United States Attorney Tom Colantuono announced that Aderci Dasilva, 35, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Concord to selling counterfeit identification documents. Dasilva, who lived in Nashua, pleaded guilty to eight counts of selling counterfeit resident alien cards, also known as “green cards,” and counterfeit social security cards. ICE agents arrested Dasilva and a second individual, Gilmar Miranda on July 28, 2005. In the course of an undercover investigation conducted with ICE agents,...

Illegal aliens charged with making fake IDs Monday, November 21, 2005 RANDLEMAN — Two men authorities said are illegal aliens were charged with making fake IDs, the Randolph County Sheriff's Office reported today. On Friday, sheriff's investigators searched a home at 380 Kings Ridge Road in Randleman. They found fraudulent IDs including Social Security cards, alien resident cards, Hispanic marriage certificates, passports, tax identification cards, fictitious drivers license and a forged inspection sticker, according to the sheriff's office. Also seized was computer equipment including printers and scanners, laptop computers, a typewriter, Polaroid camera, a heating machine, laminator, adhesive and several...

COUPLE INDICTED FOR BRINGING IN AND HARBORING SMUGGLED TEENAGE GIRLS FROM MEXICO Victims allegedly threatened; 14-year-old forced to work 12-hour shifts to repay debts SALT LAKE CITY – A federal grand jury returned an eight-count indictment this morning charging a Salt Lake City couple for their role in a scheme to smuggle a 14-year-old girl and two other young women from Mexico to Utah and hold them at a local residence until each repaid $2,800 in smuggling fees. According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, the defendants told the women their relatives in Mexico would be killed if...

CHICAGO MAN FOUND GUILTY IN BIZARRE MURDER PLOT, FACES LIFE IN PRISON CHICAGO — A Chicago man was found guilty in federal court Monday for his role in a bizarre plot involving murder, faked death and a switched body that was revealed from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). James Rand, 49, was found guilty by a federal jury of aiding and abetting in murdering William White, a 47-year-old homeless man who was suffocated in an effort to fake the death of Joseph Kalady. Kalady was facing federal prosecution in 2001 for running a fraudulent immigration document...

MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. (Oct. 20, 2005) -- Lance Cpl. Joseph Alvarez, Provost Marshals Office gate sentry, intercepted four illegal immigrants attempting to come aboard MCLB Barstow to work for a civilian contracting company Oct 12. Alvarez was conducting a routine inspection of the vehicle and passengers, and noticed the van did not have Department of Defense decals or markings. While inspecting the passengers' identification cards, Alvarez noticed the cards had a different color, a lower print quality than California issued identification cards and the text sizes were not the same, he said. After noticing these differences, Alvarez...

ST. LOUIS, September 21, 2005 –- The Boeing [NYSE: BA] Ground Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program team and the Missile Defense Agency emplaced the ninth GMD interceptor in its underground silo at Fort Greely, Alaska on Sept. 18. The operation involved the use of a special crane to lower the interceptor into the silo. This is the seventh interceptor emplaced at the Fort Greely Site. Two interceptors also were emplaced at the GMD Site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in 2004. The GMD system consists of integrated ground-based interceptors, a variety of sensors and an expansive battle management command,...

For several years, Boeing Co. has been consistent on one point: The best aircraft to replace the Air Force's aging tanker fleet is a modified version of its 767 commercial jet. On Tuesday, however, Chicago-based Boeing said it was ready to build a new tanker based on any of its airframes, including the next-generation, fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner. "We have a full family of aircraft, and if the Air Force and the Department of Defense determine a new aircraft is the best solution for replacing the KC 135 tanker, we think we can ensure their requirements are met," said Brian Ames,...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Northrop Grumman, the No. 3 Pentagon contractor, announced Wednesday that it will team with European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. to build an air-to-air refueling tanker that can challenge Boeing Co., once thought to have a lock on an Air Force contract worth billions. For Los Angeles-based Northrop, which built the Cold War-era, billion-dollar B-2 Stealth bomber, the program puts the company in contention for major Air Force work and places it at the fore of a new trend that teams American defense contractors with European manufacturers. The airplane's basic design will come from the commercial...

SINGAPORE (AFP) - The US-made Boeing F-15 Eagle has defeated the French-built Rafale in a dogfight for a billion-dollar fighter contract in Singapore, dealing a blow to European interests in Asia's booming arms market. The French defense ministry has expressed "regret" following Singapore's announcement late Tuesday that it was in talks with Boeing for its new generation of fighters, a decision closely watched by other buyers. "It is a sovereign decision of the Singaporean state. France respects it. Even if we regret it, this decision will not detract from the quality of our bilateral relations," the ministry said in a...

ST. LOUIS, August 26, 2005 – Four Boeing [NYSE:BA] Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) were released on Aug. 25 from two separate carriages on a U.S. Air Force F-15E, testing the full capabilities of the SDB guided-weapon system. The test at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., was conducted at an altitude of 15,000 feet, approximately 20 nautical miles from four separate targets. After receiving target coordinates, the F-15E crew released the four bombs from two separate BRU-61 carriages. "Being able to hit more targets with fewer sorties is what the SDB was designed to do," said Boeing Weapons Enterprise Capability Center...

ST. LOUIS, August 10, 2005 – Two Boeing [NYSE: BA] Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) X-45A unmanned aircraft successfully completed a graduation exercise when they flew their most challenging simulated combat mission today at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. "We pushed the X-45As to their limits and they responded brilliantly," said Darryl Davis, Boeing Global Strike Solutions vice president. "This incredible X-45A program made aviation history and laid the foundation for our X-45C, which will become a critical weapon in our military's arsenal." For test flights 63 and 64, the X-45As departed from the...

WASHINGTON -- Boeing has completed passive flight testing of its missile-killing Airborne Laser, or ABL, the company announced Wednesday. Now the program to install a missile-killing laser into a Boeing 747 will move back to Wichita, Kan., after the latest round of tests, which were conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Boeing Integrated Defense System Wichita originally modified a 747 for the Airborne Laser program that is designed to detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles. The system utilizes a megawatt-class Chemical Oxygen Iodine laser. The recently completed flight tests measured the aircraft's ability to identify and track targets,...

Boeing Co.'s St. Louis-made F-15 Eagle used to be the sure thing of fighter jet procurement. Now the aging fighter is just a long shot in its own country. Jim Albaugh, chief executive of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, says the odds are against the U.S. Air Force signing a multiyear deal to buy more F-15s. That assessment isn't surprising as the Pentagon prepares to spend billions of dollars over the next few decades for the F/A-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, two planes under development by Lockheed Martin Corp. Still, some influential members of Congress say the Air Force...

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was supposed to end the practice of subjecting black voters to literacy tests, poll taxes and intimidation. But one civil rights leader said the use of photo identification requirements in some states is a giant step backwards. U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who marched for civil rights with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s, told Cybercast News Service that legislation recently passed in his home state requiring voters to provide photo IDs "is going back almost to the literacy tests; to tell people you must prove who you are [to polling...

A Division of Motor Vehicles counter clerk who reportedly told police he faked at least five state ID cards was charged Thursday with felony counts of bribery and misconduct in public office. The state Department of Transportation has suspended Alfredo Ramirez, 41, of the 6300 block of W. Adler St. from his job without pay while an internal investigation is carried out, said Gary Guenther, director of the division's Bureau of Field Services. Ramirez, a five-year DOT employee, is accused of working up a fake identification card for an undercover police officer who presented fake documents while Ramirez was working...