For years, customers who wanted phony driver’s licenses, permanent resident cards or Social Security cards could take their business to a Little Village operation protected by a West Side street gang, federal authorities say.
Lately, there has been a new item for sale: the computer software used to make the phony documents, federal prosecutors charged Thursday.
Seven people — all of whom are suspected of being in the country illegally — were the latest to be charged in an ongoing crackdown against the illegal sale and manufacture of phony documents. Five are thought to be members of the same family, officials said.
The new charges, which targeted a crew working at Avers and 26th, included accusations that they sold software to help manufacture phony documents.
The software, which sold for ,000, could be used to make permanent resident cards, Social Security cards and driver’s licenses for eight states, including Illinois, according to the charges. In the undercover sting, the sellers also allegedly handed over two uncut sheets of laminates with hologram seals of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Statute of Liberty and printing referring to the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to the charges.
Federal investigators for years have targeted illegal ID sales in Little Village. They say that sellers pay street gangs — in this case the Two-Six Nation — a tax that allows them to stand on corners and use hand gestures to sell the phony documents.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2845600,CST-NWS-fakeid29.article
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