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May 30, 2007
Operator of a Chicago "Little Village" photo shop - Nuevo Foto Muñoz - charged with participating in fraudulent identification document conspiracy
CHICAGO - The operator of a photo studio in Chicago's "Little Village" community was charged yesterday with conspiracy to produce false identification documents and aiding and abetting. The charges came a month after federal agents searched the shop and nearly two-dozen defendants were charged with participating in a bustling counterfeit identification document business that allegedly generated between $2 million and $3 million annually. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are investigating the case.
The new defendant, Elias Muñoz, operates Nuevo Foto Muñoz at 3105 W. 26th St., in the Little Village Discount Mall, where customers and undercover ICE agents allegedly obtained photos that were later affixed to bogus government-issued identification cards.
Muñoz, 62, of Chicago, had an initial court appearance this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown in U.S. District Court. Muñoz was charged in a criminal complaint filed yesterday, announced U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Northern District of Illinois, and Elissa A. Brown, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago.
The local offices of the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the FBI are also participating in the investigation.
The complaint against Muñoz - part of an ICE investigation dubbed "Operation Paper Tiger" - incorporates charges brought last month against 22 defendants accused of participating in a 3 1/2-year conspiracy to illegally produce identification documents, authentication features and false identification documents. Thirteen of the 22 defendants have been arrested in Chicago since April 24, including Julio Leija-Sanchez, the alleged leader of the Chicago cell of a Mexican-based criminal organization.
Also on April 24, ICE and other federal agents executed search warrants at four locations, which included Nuevo Foto Muñoz. According to the complaint filed today, the items seized from inside the studio included:
- 717 blank blue State of Illinois resident identification cards;
- 228 blank red U.S. identification cards;
- About 900 blank green Illinois resident identification cards, bearing a State of Illinois seal embossed in the background of the cards;
- 717 blank pink U.S. identification cards;
- An ink-based stamp, asking for the following information in English: name, address, city, social security number, date of birth, weight, height and eye color;
- 879 two-inch-by-two-inch pieces of paper, with the above stamped information in English and Spanish;
- One package of blank laminates, which were located on the camera counter; and
- A three-foot-by-two-foot display, entitled "Identificaciones Personales," which means "Personal Identification." Inserted and taped to the display are 12 identification cards, 10 of which purport to be government identification cards, such as a "United States of America Illinois Resident Identification" card with the State of Illinois seal in the background, and a "United States of America Identification" card with an identification number and expiration date. All 12 identification cards have passport-sized photos. All but three bear identification information such as social security number, date of birth, hair color, and eye color. Elias Muñoz is pictured in at least two of the identification cards.
The complaint also alleges that on three consecutive days starting April 3, 2007, two undercover ICE agents visited the Discount Mall and had photos taken at Foto Muñoz by Muñoz or another individual. The photos were taken during the course of purchasing and obtaining sets of counterfeit identification documents, including driver's licenses purporting to be issued by Michigan, Wisconsin, New York and Iowa, Resident Alien Cards (aka "green cards") and Social Security Cards.
According to the complaint affidavit, a confidential informant, told agents that he used Nuevo Foto Muñoz since he began selling fraudulent identity documents in the Discount Mall parking lot for the alleged Castoreña Family Organization in 1996. As a "miquero" or vendor, the informant solicited customers to buy such fraudulent identification documents as social security cards, driver's licenses, and green cards, or "micas." The informant and other miqueros accompanied customers into Nuevo Foto Muñoz, where they obtained the customer's information and finished negotiating transactions.
The miqueros always obtained the blank order forms from Nuevo Foto Muñoz, and the Organization required the miqueros to include the completed order form with every order submitted to the "office," where fraudulent identification documents were manufactured. Muñoz allegedly kept a box of blank order forms, in English and Spanish, on a desk in the shop's entryway. Sometimes the box was empty, and the informant asked Muñoz to get more order forms, and he did. Once the order form was completed, the miquero told Muñoz or another individual that the customer needed a photo for an ID.
The miqueros told Muñoz whether there needed to be a blue or white background for the photo - blue background for driver's licenses, and white background for green cards. Sometimes the miqueros simply told Muñoz if the photo was for an ID (driver's license) or a mica (green card), and then Muñoz knew whether to use a blue or white background. If the miquero did not specify what color background or what type of document, Muñoz would ask if the photo was for an ID or mica.
The complaint alleges that each miquero was in Nuevo Foto Muñoz taking orders for fraudulent identification documents about five or six times a day. Usually seven or eight miqueros worked at a time in two different shifts, and usually there were two or three miqueros at any one time taking orders in the photo shop.
Muñoz allegedly kept envelopes on the desk near the box of order forms, and the miquero put the completed order and photo in one of those envelopes. The miquero wrote his own nickname on the outside of the envelope and what type of document was being ordered. After a miquero put the completed order form and photo from Nuevo Foto Muñoz in an envelope, the miquero hid all the envelopes in one spot. This way, a "runner" could pick up all the orders from the hiding spot whenever he was making a trip to the "office," and, if a miquero was stopped by law enforcement, the miquero would not have any orders or money with him if he was searched. On busy days, runners brought about 20 orders each time they went to the office, and made about five or six trips to the office each day, the affidavit states.
"ICE is committed to investigating and dismantling this criminal organization - one of the largest and most sophisticated illegal document fraud rings operating in the United States," Ms. Brown said. "Criminals and even terrorists can use fraudulent documents to conceal themselves in our society, which poses a major homeland security vulnerability. Working with our law enforcement partners, ICE will continue to identify and shut down these vulnerabilities," she added.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Nasser Weiss, Andrew Porter and David Buvinger, Northern District of Illinois, are prosecuting this case.
If convicted, conspiracy to produce fraudulent identification documents carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Note, however, that the court would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed. The public is reminded that a complaint contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
-- ICE --
