Federal Agents Bust Fake ID Ring

Federal authorities today announced charges against 22 people in what they described as a massive fraudulent ID ring run out of a Little Village shopping plaza.

In announcing the charges, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said the ring's alleged leader also ordered the murder of a rival and was conspiring to commit more violent acts.

In all, 12 of those charged were in custody and 10 were fugitives, including four in Mexico, Fitzgerald said.

Most of the arrests were made in a raid Tuesday afternoon on the Little Village Discount Mall, where agents toting rifles and dressed in bulletproof vests stopped about 150 shoppers and workers.

While the raid angered many in the largely Hispanic community on Chicago's Southwest Side, Fitzgerald defended the timing and level of force used.

"We're certainly going to enforce the law against people who conspire to kill people in order to protect their organization," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said authorities had to catch the suspects in the act and where they operated. He said the raid had "nothing to do" with the debate over immigration or disrupting a rally planned for next month.

"These are serious matters," Fitzgerald said. "I want to make clear that there is a great debate going on in our country about the immigration situation; this case is not about that debate. Whatever your views are … you do not let people masquerade as people who they are not."

Fitzgerald said the organization spans from Chicago to other U.S. cities and to Mexico. The Chicago operation was based in the Little Village market, and was responsible for producing about 50 to 100 fraudulent documents each day, he said.

Fitzgerald said the ring was "engaged long-term in producing high-quality fraudulent IDs" including green cards, social security cards, and driver's licenses from various states. The operation brought in from $2 million to $3 million annually, according to Fitzgerald.

The alleged leader of the Chicago organization, Julio Leija-Sanchez, 31, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, according to Fitzgerald. Authorities allege Sanchez ordered the murder of a rival in Mexico and was plotting the deaths of others who he believed had stolen equipment from his operation.

Fitzgerald said federal agents obtained a warrant earlier this year to wiretap two cell phones. The wiretaps yielded recordings of calls between Sanchez and another defendant who was in Mexico and had just carried out a murder, Fitzgerald said.

He said agents recorded a "very detailed conversation in which the person who did the killing" described firing 15 shots at the victim, and that he knew he had shot him in the liver because he "bled black blood," Fitzgerald said.

Neighborhood residents reacted strongly to Tuesday's raid, with many seeing the action as an attempt to intimidate people in advance of a planned May 1 march to Daley Plaza in protest of recent federal raids nationwide.

"They're trying to scare us," said Juan Luis Martinez, 22, a Little Village resident, predicting the action would pull more people into the streets next Tuesday. "It won't work."

Some residents acknowledged that fake documents were being produced in the community, attributing it to the desperation some illegal immigrants have to find work.

But the manner in which the action was taken—in daylight as parents walked children home from school—inflamed the community.

Baltazar Enriquez, 27, was at the mall to buy shoes after leaving his construction job when about 60 agents stormed in and shut down all the stores, he said. The agents, carrying pictures of suspects, lined up people against a wall and checked to see whether they had anyone they were looking for, Enriquez said.

But when asked about the tactics at today's news conference, Fitzgerald said it was the only way to catch the suspects in the act. He bristled when one reporter asked why authorities didn't arrest the suspects in their homes.

"You're assuming we know where everyone lives, and that's a big assumption when you're dealing with people who make fraudulent identification," Fitzgerald said.



By Jason Meisner and Antonio Olivo
Tribune staff reporters