Cops say they've busted fake ID ring in West Lawn; West Lawn woman, nephew face fraud, possessi

Cook County sheriff's detectives have broken up a fake ID operation on Chicago's Southwest Side that sold hundreds of phony driver's licenses, Social Security cards and Mexican commercial driver's licenses out of a West Lawn home, authorities announced Tuesday.

In a raid Monday night that led to the arrest of Guadalupe Arroyo Hernandez, 37, and her nephew, Javier Castillo, 19, sheriff's officers seized a laminating machine, two computers and more than $7,700 inside the house near 60th Place and Lawndale Avenue, said sheriff's spokeswoman Penny Mateck. They face felony charges of fraud and possession of fake driver's licenses, she said.

Officers also found hundreds of fake driver's licenses for Illinois, Arizona and Indiana, Mexican matriculas consulares, or ID cards, and Mexican commercial driver's licenses that enabled easy passage across the U.S. border, officials said.

"Some were ready to be delivered and others were torn and discarded," Mateck said. "All are believed to be fraudulent."

The West Lawn operation was known by word-of-mouth, with U.S. minors and illegal immigrants paying as much as $250 for a fake commercial driver's license, $150 for fake driver's licenses or $50 for a bogus Social Security card, said Mateck, adding the 6-week-old investigation is continuing.

Some of the fake IDs were sold to customers in Beardstown, Ill., where federal authorities arrested 25 workers at the Quality Integrity Services Inc. cleaning company and charged them with identity fraud, officials said.

The West Lawn house is not far from where a fake ID ring operated out of the Little Village neighborhood and where federal authorities earlier this year found more than $200,000 and several laptops.

Officials said they didn't know yet whether the West Lawn group is connected to the Little Village ring, which federal authorities have described as a main hub to a vast network of fake ID operations run in 32 states.

Those accused of being leaders of the Little Village ring are awaiting trial after they were indicted in April on charges related to the death of a competitor in Mexico, a conspiracy to kill his accomplice and several document fraud cases. They have pleaded innocent.

Chicago Tribune; Wednesday, October 3, 2007

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