Homeland Security agents and California DMV investigators have arrested four Sacramento-area men on charges of making and selling thousands of phony identification cards to undocumented immigrants. For $120, you could buy a phony green card, Social Security card or a California driver's license on the streets of south Sacramento, investigators said. You could buy a set of all three for $250.
The suspects – undocumented immigrants with multiple identities – allegedly ran high-tech document mills out of their residences and the trunks of their cars.
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According to the federal criminal complaint, one of the suspects, Javier Hernandez-Lopez, met an undercover agent at the parking lot of the Hacienda market on Franklin Boulevard and offered to set him up with his own counterfeiting franchise for $20,000.
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Also in the Sacramento County jail on charges of document fraud are Juan Hernandez-Lopez, 33, Javier's younger brother, who had been deported in 2003; Luis Eduardo Torres-Hernandez, 25, and Alejandro Bielma-Ortiz, 40. All four men were arrested Thursday and charged with manufacturing false identity and immigration documents. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison for each count.