How Foreign Crime Gangs Establish Their Identities

A Washington Post story about a Korean organized crime ring -- operating within driving distance of our nation’s capital -- reveals how these groups are involved in a wide-variety of criminal enterprises designed to create illegal revenue flows. It also shows how foreign criminals establish themselves and operate within our society.

The problem isn’t people trying to make a better life for themselves, the problem is that criminals are able to easily manipulate the security of our borders. There is even a good example in the story of how illegal immigrants are routinely victimized. In order to pay back their debt for being brought in illegally -- they were working in a sweatshop located in a middle-class residential neighborhood — producing counterfeits of designer labels.

On a side note, according to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, counterfeit merchandise is a $600 billion a year problem in itself.

The story, written by Tom Jackman, of the Washington Post details an undercover investigation that starts with manipulating cigarette taxes and progresses into identity theft, mortgage fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting and even murder-for-hire.
The initial scheme with the cigarettes involved buying cigarettes in Virginia — which has a 30 cent per pack tax -- and transporting them to New York where the tax runs $4.25 a pack. Like the designer clothing being knocked-off (counterfeited), the tax stamps were counterfeited. According to an ATF agent quoted in the story, this equates to billions of dollars that have “gone missing” in tax revenue.

The identity theft and resulting crimes, such as mortgage and credit card fraud, were discovered when undercover agents were introduced to an individual selling social-security numbers and passport information obtained from Chinese nationals working in the Marianas Islands. This information was then used to establish credit and obtain identification to make the members of the gang appear to be legitimate members of our society.

The investigation also uncovered a dishonest DMV employee in Illinois, who was providing identification to members of the group. These documents were then traded in for identification from other States. In this case, the State was often Virginia. This sent shivers up my spine as I remembered that Mohammed Atta and crew used Virginia, Florida, New Jersey and California driver’s licenses' — which were obtained after they entered the country with counterfeit documents – to board the planes in what became 9-11.



In the past, I’ve written about and spoken to Suad Leija and her husband, who have been working with the government to expose a cartel that operates throughout the country providing counterfeit identification documents. They have dubbed these documents, “Paper Weapons” because they can be used to commit crimes or even achieve radical political objectives. Suad’s story has been covered in the mainstream media on a fairly regular basis. According to the conversations I've had with Suad and her husband, most of the people illegally entering the country use what are known as "feeder documents" to establish themselves. Their eventual goal is to establish an identity that appears to be as legitimate as yours or mine. Once they accomplish this, the identities can be used to establish credit and even get a mortgage.

In the Washington Post story, no mention of direct fraud involving a financial loss is mentioned. The intent seems to be to use the identities to establish a "seemingly" legal status and then commit other crimes. The story mentions that the group offered to help launder the illegal revenue being made from selling the cigarettes. This was done with personal and cashier’s checks, which suggests the identities were also used to open bank accounts.

These fraudulently established identities were also being used to buy real estate. Although no direct financial fraud is mentioned in the article, it wouldn’t be very hard for people doing this to get some home-equity loans, cash them out and disappear. They could do this if they were leaving the country, or simply move on to another identity and do it all over again. Given that we are in a pretty severe recession, sparked by a mortgage crisis, it again made me wonder how much of it might have been caused by fraud that we aren’t even aware of?

When the sweat shops were raided, crack pipes were found. This was probably to keep the people working in them in a state of addiction, which would assist in keeping them under the control of their keepers. Abuse of illegal immigrants is well-documented and this is probably only one of many examples going on throughout the country at this very moment. It isn’t unknown for illegal immigrants to be forced into smuggling drugs, committing financial crimes or even becoming prostitutes.

This is just one example, but a good one, of how insecure our borders really are. It also shows the more severe consequences of allowing identity theft to run rampant in our society. Now that the election is over, perhaps it’s time for our politicians to stop ignoring the problem. We are a nation of immigrants, and in the end, very few of us are against hard-working people trying to better themselves. The problem is that the way we currently approach the problem enables criminals (and potentially terrorists) to operate and profit at the expense of society.

ICE raid nets 49 illegal security guards in Texas

Looks like the folks at ICE have been busy in Texas going after illegal security providers, some of whom, apparently were armed.

Jason Trahan at the Dallas Morning News reports:

A task force led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided more than two dozen mostly Latino night clubs, restaurants, pool halls and other businesses Saturday night, arresting 49 undocumented immigrants employed as security guards, officials said.

All of those arrested work for two local security companies, which authorities declined to identify Sunday.

The investigation into these security guard providers might be ongoing because in Texas, as in most States, security services are a regulated business for which a license must be obtained.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety:

Under state law, commissioned security officers must successfully complete a 30-hour school. Once the course is completed, commissioned officers must wear a specific uniform indicating the company by whom they are employed while carrying their weapons.

Applicants for licensing or registration by the Private Security Bureau must have undergone a fingerprint-based state and national criminal history check. Applicants who have been convicted of a felony or a Class A misdemeanor cannot be considered for a license for 20 years. Applicants convicted of a Class B misdemeanor can apply for consideration after 5 years. Some Class B misdemeanors, such as first-time DWI, do not disqualify an applicant from receiving a license or application.

Maybe this is why -- despite the lack of official commentary on the matter -- Craig Watkins the Dallas County District Attorney stated:

Hopefully, this operation will help us send a message that we will not tolerate the falsification of documents for undocumented aliens under the guise of providing security.

Counterfeit documents are a huge problem and enable a lot of illegally placed individuals to obtain employment that they would otherwise be barred from. Given that they are easily available, they are a gateway for all kinds of other criminal activity, also.

This isn't the first time, a story has broken, where counterfeit documents allowed people using an unverified or even someone else's identity to perform duties they never should have been able to.

Although a few miles from Dallas, in November, James Slack of the Daily Mail revealed that 5,000 illegal immigrants were working as security guards in some of the United Kingdom's most sensitive buildings.

In January of 2007, the Herald Tribune reported that 40 illegal immigrants were arrested on military bases by ICE. The same story referenced an earlier story, where 60 illegal immigrants were arrested at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the 82nd Airborne Division and Special Operations Units.

Earlier this month, Neville W. Cramer wrote in Today's Facility Manager about the growing problem from a facility management perspective:

While there are a multitude of economic and social issues surrounding the millions of illegal aliens currently in the U.S., two issues should be of specific concern to facility managers (fms). The first is security, and the second is comprehensive immigration reform. Since the latter is currently hung up in Congress, this article will examine security first.

Federal, state, and municipal law enforcement agencies are well aware that some of the largest employers of illegal aliens are directly and peripherally involved in building services and maintenance. Whether it is the cleaning crews, the janitors, the trash removal workers, or the security guards, illegal immigrants make up a significant portion of the workforce.

While this recent event in Dallas highlights the illegal immigration problem from the South -- there are illegal immigrants from other parts of the World working as security guards -- who likely have been planted in facilities or organizations for the purposes of stealing information.

From the Today's Facility article:

For instance, organized criminals from West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, etc.) are now firmly entrenched nationwide in the security guard business. They are usually educated, well mannered men and women who are willing to work weekends and midnight shifts.

Unfortunately, what is not widely known is that “while guarding the henhouse,” many of these contracted security workers are suspected of stealing employee and customer identity data and company proprietary information. In some instances, these guards are using multiple fraudulent identities themselves, making it almost impossible for law enforcement to catch up with them. Fms should be aware of these emerging trends and, along with law enforcement and security professionals, take whatever steps are necessary to mitigate their risks.

The article sums up it's thoughts with the well known fact that the current Employment Eligibility Employment Verification Form (1-9) is woefully inadequate, especially with all the stolen identities and counterfeit documents that are easily obtained, just about anywhere.

Even with no match SSN legislation forthcoming -- which will require social security numbers to match a name -- the system will probably still be manipulated. There is a lot of stolen information out there, which contains both names and social security numbers, already. The groups counterfeiting documents will just have to make sure everything matches.

This is likely to cause an explosion in the number of identity theft cases, which is already a growing problem.

This legislation, which has been held up by a Federal Judge in San Francisco at the behest of the ACLU and other groups, appears to be poised to be enacted in the near-term. Arizona, which has the highest rate of identity theft in the nation, has already enacted a similar law.

Dallas Morning News story, here.

Well written and informative article by Neville W. Cramer, here.

If you want to learn more about the easy availability of counterfeit documents and how they are being dispensed throughout the U.S. (and probably the World) by organized criminal gangs, I recommend going to Suad Leija's Paper Weapons site. The information on this site has been covered extensively by the mainstream media and is likely being used by government entities to discover the full scope of this scary problem.

When will we realize how serious the problem of counterfeit devices has become?

On March 6th, Queens District Attorney, Richard Brown announced a series of indictments against a major counterfeiting ring. Although based in New York City, the group was operating nationwide. The ring was obtained skimmed card information from hackers in China. Subsequent news reports have stated that skimmed information was obtained from hackers in the Ukraine, also.

From the press release:

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, today announced that a forged credit card and identity theft ring based in Queens County and with roots in the Far East has been successfully dismantled following the indictment this week of thirty-eight individuals. The ring was allegedly responsible for stealing the personal credit information of scores of American consumers and costing these individuals, financial institutions and retail businesses more than $1 million in losses over the past year.

Counterfeit identification documents to match the counterfeit financial devices were being produced, also.

DA Brown explains why this is of greater concern than mere financial crime:

Many of the defendants charged today are accused of going on nationwide shopping sprees, purchasing tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-end electronics, handbags and jewelry with forged credit cards that contained the account information of unsuspecting consumers. Particularly disturbing is the fact that, in a number of cases, the defendants are charged with using bogus documents to purchase airline tickets and then using those documents as identification to board commercial aircraft. In the hands of terrorists such documents could have easily undermined the efforts of homeland security and other law enforcement officials intent on keeping our borders and citizens safe.

Given that the scope of this crime potentially crosses three continents, it probably demonstrates different organized crime groups are working together. The potential these items might be sold to people with twisted political and or religious motives isn't too far a stretch.

It has been reported that Al Qaeda training manuals teach their minions to use credit card fraud as a means of financing their activities.

I doubt if most of these criminals could care less, who they are selling them to. Even if they did, the full intent of the purchaser might not be readily apparent.

Suad Leija -- who has been providing information on a major counterfeiting cartel to the government -- says that this was the reason she turned on her family members running the cartel.

This latest example shows that despite a lot of focus on security to prevent terrorist attacks, counterfeit documents are a clear threat to all of us.

Prior to Suad turning against her family, her husband says he tried to get the cartel to let the government use their database as a tool to identify potential terrorists, who might have already crossed our border.

I'm sad to report that the database was never accessed and that the criminal case against the cartel is facing some serious challenges at the present time.

This series of indictments also shows how the Internet is being used to fence a lot of stolen merchandise. Normally, we hear about it happening on auction sites, such as eBay or Craigslist; however in this instance this group had an e-commerce website of their own. This website, Easttrades.com, is still up and running at the time I am writing this.

I decided to run the domain through "Whois" and it’s registered right here in the United States.

Maybe it’s just me, but it appears that we need to take the counterfeiting problem a little more seriously. They appear to be easy to produce and are available to too many people.

They are a gateway for criminals, or worse to commit all sorts of illegal activity. I would love to ask the political candidates running in the current election what they think about this problem.

Unfortunately, my guess is that no one is going to ask them and that this is an issue they would rather not talk about.

Queens District Attorney press release on this, here.

Will counterfeit documents enable the next terrorist attack?

(Cartoon by Suad Leija. Suad is the artist, however the political opinions are those of her husband. More cartoons can be seen on her new site, here.)

With the 2008 election in full swing, most of the candidates seem content to dodge the issue of border security.

Tied into another controversial issue, which is illegal immigration, discussing it is probably considered a no-win situation. It's probably likely that no matter what stance they take, it will cost them votes.

Perhaps, the reason it's so controversial is that we are a country of immigrants and most of our ancestors came to this country to seek a better life.

In most cases, what we consider poverty in this country, is a far better standard of living than where they are coming from.

Businesses take advantage of this "cheap labor" (payroll is always a key expense in any business) and because of their illegal status, illegal immigrants don't tend to complain about low wages and no benefits.

Since illegal immigrants are human beings and get sick etc., the taxpayer normally ends up paying for all the social costs associated with their employment. This is a pretty good deal for the employers using this "in-sourced" form of labor.

If you really wanted to solve the illegal immigration problem, it would probably be pretty simple. All you'd have to do is go after the businesses hiring them.

If the process were more transparent, they would probably have to take care of the people, who work for them a little better, also.

The biggest problem with illegal immigration is that all sorts of criminals, and some say, people with political agendas (terrorists) can easily camouflage themselves in the worldwide exodus of people from poor and war-torn countries. The illegal immigration process is controlled by organized criminals, who only care if the person they are bringing in has the money to pay them.

If you think illegal immigration consists of only people from Mexico, this is no longer the case. More and more, they are coming from a lot of different places and illegal immigration is hardly a problem just in the United States.

Whether they are here to find work, commit crimes or plan the next 9/11 -- the first thing someone entering a country illegally needs to do is make themselves appear to be legal. The way they do this is by using counterfeit documents to establish a (seemingly)legitimate identity.

In the hands of terrorists, counterfeit documents are an enabler to murder innocent people because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Given that Atta and the 9/11 crew used counterfeit documents to establish themselves in the U.S., it amazes me that as I write this, the business in them is booming.

The story of Suad Leija has been covered extensively in the mainstream media. Suad is the stepdaughter of one of the prominent leaders of an organized counterfeit document cartel operating throughout North America. Suad met and eventually married an American businessman, with alleged ties to the intelligence community.

The businessman then tried to strike a deal with Suad's family to use their database to identify potential terrorists -- who had been provided counterfeit documents -- in exchange for the release of a prominent member of the family, who had been arrested in Chicago.

The operation took a turn when the cartel refused to provide this information and Suad ended up assisting the authorities in identifying the main players in the cartel, as well as, the scope of their operation throughout the United States.

There have been 38 arrests and the court case is still underway.

Please note that ties to an intelligence operation have not been confirmed by a government source. Nonetheless, if you've followed the story, this is probably a fairly good deduction.

I wouldn't expect the government to confirm, or deny this story. Revealing details about intelligence operations compromises their efforts. This is probably why the intelligence community is and always will be the unsung heroes in the "War against Terror."

Charlie Wilson's War, the Tom Hanks movie, although probably a little "Hollywood" in nature is probably a good example of how a few good intelligence types can make a big difference. True stories, such as this one, normally are only officially confirmed years after the fact.

Just the other day, Newsweek released an update to the Suad story, with more details about the operation.

Joe Contreras (Newsweek) writes:

When federal prosecutors indicted 22 members of the Leija Sánchez counterfeit ID organization in Chicago last April, they described the arrests as "a significant setback" to one of the largest criminal enterprises of its kind ever to operate in the United States. But they made no mention of Suad Leija and the remarkable tale of how her marriage to an undercover American agent and her choice of country over family led to the downfall of the fake-document ring. Suad began cooperating with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in January 2006 and gave investigators the names and addresses of her stepfather's siblings and top lieutenants, who had been photographed while under surveillance by the Feds. Her decision to aid ICE officials, she says, grew out of concern that the fake green cards, driver's licenses and Social Security cards churned out by her family's document mills could be used by terrorists to stage another devastating attack on American soil. "Just as I wouldn't help a drug peddler sell narcotics to kids, there's no way I'd do it for terrorists who want to use fake identification produced by my family," Suad told NEWSWEEK in a phone interview from an undisclosed location. "If another September 11 were to happen and I'd done nothing to stop my family, then I would be just as guilty."

The Newsweek story also points out that these counterfeit documents are hardly being only sold to illegal immigrants, who want them to get a job:

Senior ICE officials also see the booming fraudulent documents business as a bona fide threat to national security. The industry generates annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and its primary markets are the estimated 12 to 20 million foreigners living illegally in the United States and teenagers wanting to sneak into a bar. But some of the 9/11 hijackers obtained legitimate ID documents under false pretenses, and a terrorist suspect linked to Al Qaeda named Nabil al-Marabh allegedly produced fake ID documents at his uncle's print shop in Toronto prior to the attacks on New York and Washington. Though the clientele of the Leija Sánchez ring was overwhelmingly Latin American in origin, federal prosecutors say that documents were sold to Algerians, other Arabs and Pakistanis. "That's where the vulnerability is," says James Spero, a deputy assistant director in the ICE office of investigations. "You can buy a set of documents that will make it appear you are legally in the U.S. for as little as $100, and nobody in these organizations does background checks on their customers."

The article ends with the conclusion by Mr. Contreras based on interviews with ICE officials:

ICE agents have arrested 38 members of the Leija Sánchez organization to date, and from his Mexican prison cell Manuel is currently fighting extradition to the U.S. His old business associate Pedro Castorena was flown from Mexico to Denver last month to stand trial later this year on fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering charges, and Suad is expected to testify for the prosecution. But as the decline and fall of Pablo Escobar's Colombian Medellin cartel proved in the 1990s, the decapitation of a criminal organization's leadership will not disrupt the industry as long as there is strong demand for its product. And as of this week, ICE officials reported no decline in the availability of bogus documents on the streets of any major U.S. city.

Not mentioned in the Newsweek article is that the lead ICE agent on this case, Cory Voorhis, was arrested and is being charged with "exceeding his unauthorized access to a federal criminal database."

Voorhis and his legal team contend that he was only exposing plea bargain practices that allowed illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes to not be deported by the Denver DA's office.

Please note the crimes in question are a little more serious than just crossing the border without the right documentation.

Some are comparing this case to another case, which has received a lot more attention in the media. As stated on his legal defense site:

There are troubling parallels with the 2005 prosecution in El Paso, Texas of two Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Ramos and Compean were convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler primarily on the testimony of the drug smuggler himself, who was granted immunity by the US Attorney. It has since been revealed that the US Attorney knew of the smuggler’s long criminal history yet succeeded in withholding this evidence from the jury.

A news release from his legal defense site stated that this might jeopardize the current prosecution of the Castorena-Leija counterfeit documents cartel.

From the news release:

The federal prosecution of Cory Voorhis, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who is charged in a high-profile case with three federal misdemeanors for allegedly illegally accessing a restricted database, could lead to the dismissal of charges or to drastically reduced charges for the alleged head of the notorious Mexico-based criminal Castorena Family Organization (CFO), some say.

The Suad Leija story isn't over yet and only time will tell what the final outcome will be. The full story of Operation Paper Tiger can be purchased (which includes actual wiretap transcripts) on the Paper Weapons site.

The most recent Newsweek story written by Joe Contreras can be seen in full (recommended), here.

In case you are interested in the Cory Voorhis case, a lot of information can be seen on his legal defense site, here.

Suad has also put up a new site, to further her personal interests once this story comes to a conclusion. Please note that Suad is only 23 years old and hopefully has other things in her life to pursue once this drama is over.

Below is another example of her work, which can be seen on her site (linked above). Please note that she is only the artist and the expressed views of those of her husband.

Cloned business and law enforcement vehicles used as a smuggling tool

(Picture of "toy" Border Patrol vehicle courtesy of SpongeBob22 at Flickr)

It appears that the criminals exploiting our notoriously "not very secure" Southern border have a new tool in their arsenal.

Vehicles bearing fake logos of the Border Patrol, Fedex, DirecTV and everyone's favorite source of outsourced goods, "Walmart" are being used to smuggle illicit merchandise and human beings across the border.

Brian Ross (ABC News) reports:

A fake U.S. Border Patrol van was found to be carrying 31 illegal aliens in Casa Grande, Ariz.

An alert agent recognized that the "H" in the van's serial number is a letter used only on U.S. Border Patrol Jeep Wranglers. It should have been a "P."

"Neither emergency service vehicles nor any government vehicles are exempt from terrorist or other criminal use," the report warns its law enforcement readers.

The ABC report didn't have much source information about this case so I decided to do a little digging.

I started at the Border Patrol site -- and although a found press releases with an impressive (overwhelming) amount of illegal activity they are catching -- I couldn't find anything on cloned vehicles.

Sadly enough, we are seeing border patrol agents pay the ultimate price trying to defend our borders, and as most people know two of them are in prison for shooting a known drug smuggler.

Digging a little deeper, I found a story on WFAA TV (Dallas) by Rebecca Lopez with more detail on this. Both reports reference a report (I couldn't find) from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Of note, there is concern that terrorists could use this method to obtain entry (or worse) into the United States. The report referenced has allegedly been passed out to law enforcement agencies nationwide.

The WFAA story also references a cloned vehicles fact sheet put out by National Insurance Crime Bureau. Apparently cloning vehicles is a known method used by auto theft rings to fence their stolen merchandise.

Recently, there was quite a bit of uproar over Mexican truck drivers being given carte blanche access to U.S. roadways. Sadly enough, with cloned vehicles and the easy availability of counterfeit documents (identification) -- it might be difficult to tell which the difference between legitimate and illegitimate truck drivers.

I've covered counterfeit documents, as well as, the ease in which they are obtained frequently on this blog. A lot of these posts reference Suad Leija, who has been covered frequently in the press regarding the assistance she has given the government in exploring the problem we face with counterfeit documents (paper weapons).

Suad assisted the government in their prosecution of the largest counterfeit document cartel operating in this country. The case is still pending in court.

ABC News story by Brian Ross, here. Of note, boingboing, which a much more popular blog than this one linked to the Brian Ross story on this, also.

My daughter and her partner sent me the boingboing link, which inspired me write this rant.

WFAA did a video presentation of this story, which is on YouTube:

Will you be the next person arrested after a criminal borrows your identity?

With new Social Security verification laws on the horizon, up to 20 million illegal aliens are probably will have to come up with a legitimate identity in order to remain employed.

Up until now, anyone has been able to make up a number and pass it off with false identification. DHS (Department of Homeland Security) was supposed to begin going after businesses that employed people with "no match social security numbers" in September, but a law suit has temporarily blocked them from implementing the process.

Interestingly enough, one of the arguments is that Social Security records aren't accurate enough to ensure mistakes won't be made. This is probably a "no brainer" defense with all the fraud that exists with social security numbers.

Given that a lot of illegal immigrants look Hispanic, a lot of them will probably seek out legitimate identities of U.S. citizens with Hispanic surnames.

Hidden within the camoflauge that illegal immigration creates is a lot of criminal activity. When another person's identity is used to commit a crime, there is a potential that they are going to face more than financial problems after becoming a victim.

Here is a scary story -- possibly a premonition of things to come -- of a senior U.S. citizen, who obviously had his identity stolen by a criminal. The story also reveal why relying on social security numbers to identify people might lead to mistakes being made.

Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez of the Yakima Herald-Republic wrote:

It seemed like a bad dream when 72-year-old retiree Rafael "Ralph" Franco woke up to a loud pounding on his front door, opened it, and found four federal agents waiting to seize him.

The longtime Yakima resident was arrested about 6 a.m. on Nov. 28 at his South Second Street apartment. Immigration officers believed that Franco, a U.S. citizen, was an undocumented immigrant convicted of several alcohol- and weapon-related crimes.

Of course, Hispanic identities aren't the only ones used by criminals. In fact, there are more and more reports of innocent people being charged with crimes after a criminal assumes their identity, commits crimes and disappears into the mist after making bail or being released because the jail is full.

The issue of people wrongfully getting arrested because they are suspected of illegal immigration is probably only one small part of the overall problem.

Stealing personal and financial information and putting it on counterfeit documents has become an organized activity. I was recently in the Mission District of the sanctuary city of San Francisco and full sets were being offered, along with a variety of drugs for as little as $200.00. A full set is normally a drivers license, Social Security and green card.

Please note, I've personally seen this activity in other cities besides San Francisco. It's pretty much out in the open and little to nothing seems to be done about it.

Suad Leija -- the stepdaughter of the "Jefe" of an organized counterfeiting cartel --recently provided evidence to the government that counterfeiting documents is an extremely organized enterprise, which operates across the entire United States.

One of the more ironic things Suad was able to show the government was proof of her Uncle serving a prison sentence in Texas under an assumed name.

There is also considerable evidence that hackers have already stolen millions (billions?) of people's information and sell it pretty openly in anonymous Internet venues.

Put these two organized activities together and they will likely easily defeat any legislation requiring Social Security numbers to match.

I started this post with an observation about Hispanic identities being targeted, but the truth of the matter is that the 20 million or so illegal immigrants seeking legitimate identities is only one small part of a bigger problem. Even if the problem were simply related to illegal immigration -- people of Hispanic origin aren't the only ones crossing our borders illegally.

Figuring out exactly what country an illegal immigrant came from is difficult. Most of them aren't likely to reveal very many personal details. I was able to find a rather outdated study from DHS.gov that reveal some old statistics on the matter:

In October 1996, 15 countries were each the source of 40,000 or more undocumented immigrants (See Table 1). The top five countries are geographically close to the United States--Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Canada, and Haiti. Of the top 15 countries, only the Philippines, Poland, and Pakistan are outside the Western Hemisphere. The estimated undocumented population from Poland has declined by more than 25 percent, from 95,000 to 70,000, since 1988, possibly reflecting changed conditions in that country over the last several years.

Sara Carter of the Washington Times did an article in August about a report she saw from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) that people of Middle Eastern/South Asian descent were posing as Hispanics. The article alleged that a partnership was being formed by something they have in common, or trafficking narcotics.

Even with NATO having boots on the ground in Afghanistan, opium production is at an all time high. Most of this is allegedly being bought by the Taliban, who now seem to operate pretty freely from the tribal areas in Pakistan.

Criminals trafficking narcotics aren't the only ones using false identities. In fact, more and more, the use of false (other people's) identities is being used to facilitate all kinds of criminal activity.

Identity theft may very become the great facilitator (enabler) of more and more crime. If criminals are able to get away with using someone else's identity, we are going to see a lot of more people victimized.

As long as we continue to consider identity theft a "low priority issue," it will continue to grow and multiply like a cancer.

The bottom line is that until we start addressing the factors that make enable stealing and using information too easy, we aren't going to fix the problem.

Doing this is going to take the cooperation of everyone from the average citizen to executive types in major corporations and our leaders in government.

Yakima Herald-Republic story, here.

A few hard questions for Governor Spitzer to answer

I've written a few posts about Suad Leija, the young woman who has provided a lot of the evidence leading to the recent arrests of the main players (jefes) involved in the largest counterfeit documents cartel operating in the United States and Mexico.

These documents are sold to whoever has the money to buy them. Besides illegal immigrants, it’s safe to assume a portion of them have been sold to criminals and possibly even terrorists.

The cartel I'm referring to is known as the Castorena Leija-Sanchez organization.

According to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), this organization was making about $300 million a year selling counterfeit documents. If one were to consider that each one of these documents has a street price of about $100, this would mean they are responsible for about 60 million counterfeit documents being put in circulation.

If each person bought two of these counterfeit documents that would equate to about 30 million people, who have used these documents.

On the site PaperWeapons.net -- Suad’s husband, who uses the pseudonym of Lazarus -- has put up a video with a few questions directed at Governor Eliot Spitzer (NY) regarding his intent to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

You might want to know what the Castorena Leija-Sanchez and Eliot Spitzer have in common? The answer is that counterfeit documents issued by the Castro Leija-Sanchez organization will probably be used to establish the identifying information for the driver's licenses in New York State.

When this happens, we will have a lot of legitimately issued driver's licenses with not very legitimate information on them!

Here are the questions, which have been made into a video and released on YouTube:

1. Is Governor Spitzer replacing the members of the Castorena Leija-Sanchez organization by providing identification documents to people, who have broken the law?

2. Is a public official, who is sworn to uphold the laws of the United States and the State of New York aiding in the commission of criminal activity by providing documents that support illegal immigration?

3. If it is Governor Spitzer’s sworn duty to uphold the law should the people he serves insist his driver's license is taken away and he be impeached?

4. Is it fair for Governor Spitzer to break the law to get votes?

5. Since this card identifies the holder as someone, who has broken the law is it a get out of jail free card?

When law enforcement personnel discover that a illegal immigrant has broken the law, they are supposed to report them to the federal authorities. This is so they can be deported. Unless I'm missing something in all the hype that has resulted from this issue, this license will clearly identity the holder as a illegal alien.

If I were an illegal immigrant, I might be worried that if the political climate shifted, the licenses might be used to track down and deport people. Most of them are probably going to continue to use counterfeit documents that will not identify them as people, who are breaking the law.

Some of these concepts might be confusing to the average person, who has had the pleasure of living in a sanctuary city.

In a sanctuary city, the politicians tell the police not to ask any questions about a suspect’s immigration status. In other words, they are directed to bury their heads in the sand on this law. Sadly enough, this is also the case when illegal immigrants are arrested for serious crimes.

Here is a story from CBS5.com about an attorney (David Klehm), who is suing the San Francisco PD for not reporting illegal aliens. The same attorney has filed similar law suits in Los Angeles and San Jose.

The problem with issuing any identification document for a person -- who has entered the country illegally -- is how we know the document they are using to get a legitimate ID is in fact legitimate, itself.

This explains how most of the 9/11 terrorists managed to operate pretty freely before committing their heinous crime.

Most of the 9/11 hijackers used counterfeit documents, sometimes known as feeder documents to get legitimate driver’s licenses. Feeder documents are documents that are used to obtain legitimate documents. The goal of most people using counterfeit documents is to eventually get legitimate documents.

I doubt seriously that issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants is going to stop their primary goal, which is to establish themselves as legitimate citizens.

In 2004, Congressman Ed Royce made the following statement about provisions being stripped from the 9/11 bill regarding border security:

The 19 9/11 hijackers had 63 validly issued U.S. driver's licenses between them. What were they using that many for? They were moving around the country undetected and plotting and planning. In fact, as many as eight of them were even registered to vote. They then used those bogus licenses to board U.S. planes.

Congressman Royce further put things into perspective by saying:

Driver's licenses were the 9/11 terrorists' license to kill and to kill massively. We know that.

"They had 63 of these driver's licenses between them, for the 19 of them. And these identification documents gave these hijackers unfettered access to nearly everything they needed to plan and carry out their attacks on Washington, D.C. and on New York City. And the identification cards also allowed them to remain in the country with the appearance of legitimacy long after their visas had expired and their presence in the United States became illegal.

These provisions, designed to protect our borders were taken out of the bill despite the fact that 87 percent of the public supported having them included.

On a personal level, I’m more worried about National Security than anything else, but there are a lot of people saying these driver’s licenses enable voter fraud, also.

The Wall Street Journal published an editorial by John Fund on November 2nd, which explains this better than I can.

The editorial states one reason some politicians might be in favor of handing out these driver's licenses:

The background here is the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as "Motor Voter," that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It required all states to offer voter registration to anyone getting a driver's license. One simply fills out a form and checks a box stating he is a citizen; he is then registered and in most states does not have to show any ID to vote.

Come to think of it, there has been a lot of controversy this week about how Bill’s better half answered some questions regarding this issue.

Perhaps, she can help Eliot answer the questions posed to him? After all, they both represent the great State of New York. Her answers have seemed to get a lot of attention already.

The problem of illegal immigration isn't going to be easily fixed. Granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants adds fuel to an already out of control fire we are facing in this country. This is especially true when we lack the means to verify exactly, who they are in the first place.

The bottom line is that it enables more serious crimes than illegal immigration and our politicians have a sworn duty to protect us from being harmed by it!

There is an e-book written about Operation Paper Tiger, which documents the story of how the Castorena Leija-Sanchez family was investigated by the authorities. The book contains transcripts (taken from wire taps) of the organization in operation.

If you were on the fence as to whether or not our borders are secure, or just want to know how insecure they really are, the book is a must read.

Currently, the book is only available on the Paper Weapons site, here.

Counterfeit Document Gang Jefe(s) "Chiefs" charged with murder, racketeering and conspiracy

Recent picture of Suad Leija taken at an undisclosed location. Although not mentioned in many of the articles about this arrest, Suad is responsible for providing a lot of the information used in this latest indictment. Her story has been covered in the mainstream media by Lou Dobbs, Paula Zahn, Fox, CNN, La Opinion and Univision.

Operation Paper Tiger, the federal investigation into the organized trade in counterfeit documents has resulted in the arrest of three of the Jefes (Chiefs) of the largest organized gang (the Castorena Leija-Sanchez organization) involved in the trade.

Also arrested was one of the hit-men associated with the gang. The latest charges include murder, racketeering and conspiracy. These charges have been added to previous charges (already) filed regarding the organized counterfeiting of identification documents by the organization.

All 23 defendants arrested thus far are from the Castorena Leija-Sanchez counterfeit document organization. Three of the people arrested include Manuel Leija-Sanchez, Pedro Leija-Sanchez and Julio Leija Sanchez -- three brothers who allegedly are in control of the organization throughout the United States and Mexico.

There is a lot of evidence that this organized gang, which the government describes as International in nature, is responsible for providing counterfeit documents to ANYONE with the money to buy them. This would include not only millions of illegal immigrants, but a LOT of criminals and potentially, even terrorists.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced the indictment of the three leaders of this cartel in a press release:

Federal racketeering conspiracy and murder-related charges were added against three brothers – now all in custody and charged together for the first time – and their alleged “hitman” in Mexico to a pending indictment resulting from the dismantling in April of an international counterfeit identification document business that allegedly generated profits between $2.5 million and $3 million a year in Chicago’s Little Village Community. Manuel Leija-Sanchez, 40, who was arrested in Mexico last Friday, and his brother, Pedro Leija-Sanchez, 35, who was arrested in Mexico in August, are facing extradition to the United States. Together with a third brother, Julio Leija-Sanchez, 31, who was arrested in Chicago in April, the three are among a total of 23 defendants facing charges in Chicago as part of Operation Paper Tiger, an investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Also facing extradition from Mexico is the alleged hit-man, Gerardo Salazar-Rodriguez, 34, who was charged previously and was arrested in Augustin Mexico, federal law enforcement officials announced today.

Not mentioned in the press release, or most of the news articles, I saw appear on this story is the fact that most of this was made possible by a young woman by the name of Suad Leija.

Suad Leija is the step-daughter of Manuel Leija-Sanchez -- who has been providing information to the authorities about the gang's inner-operations and identifying members -- previously unknown to law enforcement.

The Chicago Tribune (Antonio Olivo) was the one mainstream source, I'm aware of, who refers to Suad's involvement in the case. I've also been told by Suad's husband that she has completed two recent interviews with Univision and was featured on the Minutemen Project the other day.

Suad started providing information on the organization after discovering her husband was trying to gather intelligence on potential terrorists, who the organization had provided with counterfeit documents. This led to her having to make a hard choice, which was whether to side with her family, or her husband. Suad chose her husband after being educated on the dangers this trade poses to the United States.

I would have to speculate that a lot of evidence used to arrest Manuel, Pedro and Julio was obtained as a result of information Suad has provided to the authorities.

If one refers to the Paper Weapons site, it also shows that the earnings of this cartel are a lot higher than $2.5 - 3.0 million allegedly earned by the Chicago cell of the organization. The figure quoted on the site is actually closer to $300 million. This figure includes the earnings of the numerous cells of the organization, which are located in cities throughout the country and operated as franchises.

Suad's story has been well-documented by mainstream media types, such as Lou Dobbs, Paula Zahn, Fox, CNN, Univision and La Raza. She has also produced a series of YouTube videos, which reveal why she decided to educate the public on how counterfeit documents are actually "paper weapons."

Interestingly enough, her story has been covered extensively in the Spanish media. One reason for this might be that pending legislation will force employers to respond to no-match social security numbers. Because of this, legal Hispanic identities will likely be targeted for identity theft purposes. In the past, making up a name was sufficient to pass muster for employment purposes.

Suad and her husband have written a novel describing the full detail of their involvement in Operation Paper Tiger, which is currently only available from the Paper Weapons site. This book reveals what might be at stake if we continue to allow criminals to control our borders.

Included in the book are transcripts from actual wire-taps, many of which, tie into this most recent indictment.

They are currently writing another novel, which will detail Suad's personal story.

Here is my original post, I did on Operation Paper Tiger, which introduces the book:

Operation Paper Tiger - the true story, which reveals why our borders aren't very secure!

I highly recommend it to anyone, who is concerned about our Nation's security.

DOJ press release on the arrest of the Leija-Sanchez brothers, here.

Indictment from Eastern Court of Illinois, here.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has a slightly different version of this latest development in the story, here.



(Passport photo -- which are frequently used to make counterfeit documents -- of Pedro Castorena-Ibarra)


(Pedro Leija-Sanchez doing time for another crime under an assumed name)


(Julio Leija-Sanchez)

ICE nails foreign gang members in 19 States

(Map of arrest locations courtesy of the ICE website)

Recently, I wrote about how counterfeit documents enable all kinds of undesirable people to blend into our communities. The point of the article was that these documents are used by more than hard working illegal immigrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families.

ICE issued a press release, which shows how widespread the problem of undesirable people blending into our communities has become.

From the press release:

A comprehensive national law enforcement operation led by federal agents and officers of the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resulted in the arrest of 1,313 violent street gang members, associates and illegal aliens in 23 cities across 19 states.

Many of these undesirable individuals are involved in narcotics, human smuggling, financial crimes and of course, crimes of a more violent nature.

MS13, which has been written about a lot was one of the targets. Other gangs were targets, also:

In addition to MS-13, targeted gangs included Surenos-13, 18th Street Gang, Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips, and Vatos Locos to name a few.

While this reflect the most recent statistics from ICE, Operation Community Shield in an ongoing operation and when you take a look at the big picture, the statistics are even larger:

During the last 27 months, Operation Community Shield has resulted in the arrest of more than 7,655 members and associates of approximately 700 different gangs and the seizure of 287 firearms. Of those arrested, 107 were gang leaders. Many of those arrested under Operation Community Shield are prosecuted criminally and eventually removed from the United States. To date, 2,444 have been charged criminally, while 5,211 have been charged with immigration violations and processed for removal.

And it seems (finally), ICE is gathering support from local law enforcement, who have been forced to stay away from this activity, mostly because of political mandates. Here is a quote from a Sheriff in Florida:

Collier County, Fla., Sheriff Don Hunter notes that, "Criminal illegal immigrants are committing crimes and victimizing our residents and it is our responsibility to investigate their immigration status thoroughly while investigating their other crimes. We have the resources and tools to do that now. It is part of our mission."

ICE press release, here.

A few days earlier, an extensive ICE operation in California netted a lot more of these undesirable foreign types, including a large number of them eating up tax dollars in local jails. What is amazing -- if you take the time to read this press release, are specific references to arrests of individuals (not only in the jails) --who had previously been convicted of serious crimes.

In other words, when they were picked up, they were running around in our neighborhoods.

Previous press release, here.

Here is the post, I mentioned in the first paragraph, which describes how a lot of these people blend (sneak) into our society:

Operation Paper Tiger - the true story, which reveals why our borders aren't very secure!

America is a land of immigrants, and should continue to be considered that. After all, a lot of us believe that this diversity is what has made this the greatest nation in the world.

Please note that there are a lot of legal immigrants, who earn the right to become citizens, also. We shouldn't be handing over the fruits of our society to anyone, who can sneak over the border. It simply isn't fair to the people, who follow the law and prove they have what it takes to uphold the best interests of our society.

Some of them value the right to be called an American so much that they are serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan as I write this. By the way, this is nothing new, many citizens of our country have earned their right to be called an American by serving it.

The problem is all the illegal activity, which goes hand-in-hand with illegal immigration, enables a lot of undesirable people to blend into our society. These people are not making our society a better, or a safer place to live.

If we allow this to continue, we risk losing our status as the greatest nation in the world.

We need to remember that "We the People" are what made this nation great.

In closing, I've seen the folks at ICE bashed quite a bit this year for trying to make an impact on a serious problem. There are some of us -- who appreciate the fact that they are doing their jobs, and by doing so -- trying to make this country a safer place to live.

In my opinion, these fine citizens deserve to be commended instead of being picked apart by certain factions in the media.

Operation Paper Tiger - the true story, which reveals why our borders aren't very secure!

(Mohammed Atta of 9/11 infamy used counterfeit documents to get this legitimate Florida Driver's License. Counterfeit documents used to get legitimate ones are known as "feeder documents.")

Border security has become a major concern for all us ever since 9/11 revealed how vulnerable we really are.

Counterfeit documents paved the way for the terrorists in 9/11 to get into our country and cause the terrible event, which has forever changed the way we live.

In 2006, Suad Leija, who was raised as the stepdaughter of the founder of the largest counterfeit documents cartel in the United States began assisting the federal authorities in discovering how widespread this problem has become.

Suad has been able to identity members of the organization, who were previously unknown to law enforcement and provide historical data on the organization dating back to the late eighties.

The story begins with Suad meeting and marrying an American businessman, who runs businesses in Mexico and Central America.

Although, this part of the story still isn't completely clear, her husband turned out to be a little more than a person operating businesses in foreign lands.

Saud discovered her husband was trying to gather intelligence on suspected terrorists the cartel had supplied with counterfeit documents. The information he was interested in was contained in an extensive database of the cartel's business dealings.

Upon this discovery, Suad had to make a hard choice. The choice was between her family, or her husband and the United States.

After her husband described the terrorist threat -- comparing it to the violent drug gangs operating in Mexico, she chose to support him -- and ultimately the United States of America.

There is an excellent description of how this occurred in a La Raza article, which has been translated into English on the Paper Weapons site, here.

I found it interesting that La Raza was covering this story, given their political agenda. La Raza isn't the only Spanish media outlet covering the story, Saud has been featured on La Opinion and Univision, also. This would indicate to me that a lot of Hispanic Americans are worried about the criminal and possible terrorist implications that counterfeit documents pose to all of us.

Eventually, Suad and her husband fled to the United States and this is where Operation Paper Tiger begins.

Operation Paper Tiger documents the federal investigation into the widespread use of counterfeit documents in the United States, which are available to anyone, who can come up with the money to pay for them. It also reveals how these documents, which are produced in large numbers, aren't very expensive, either.

The book introduces a term (Paper Weapons), which might unfamiliar to the general public:

Counterfeit documents are Paper Weapons. The first weapon a terrorist needs to "FIT IN" in the United States is a document. Once he has this weapon and cover he can then go about his business of causing great harm to the United States and its citizens.

Here is a description of the cartel and their scope of operations:

The Castorena Leija-Sanchez crime organization is the major supplier of counterfeit documents/paper weapons in the United States. They are Mexico based and have been operating in the United States for 17 years. They are in every major American city and earn approx.300 million dollars per year. They also deal in narcotics and human smuggling. They are the new silent terrorist. Just about every illegal immigrant has purchased documents or knows some one who has from this organization. This book will go into the history, organization in Mexico and the United States, money laundering, illegal document manufacturing, human smuggling and murder.

Counterfeit documents are easily purchased in most major U.S. cities. Most of us have been led to believe that they are used by illegal immigrants, who are trying to make a better life for themselves.

While this is partially true, these documents are also used by criminals to commit a lot of different crimes and have been used by terrorists to blend into our society. The book is able to substantiate this with factual information from government sources, as well as, information revealed during Operation Paper Tiger.

If you were to consider the criminal activity alone, it would include narcotics, white slavery, and a host of financial crimes. More violent crimes result out of these so-called lesser crimes, also.

In fact, Suad once asked her grandfather if the family would sell documents to terrorists. His reply was chilling, “terrorism is an American problem, not a Mexican one.”

The novel includes actual transcripts of wiretaps, revealing a lot of criminal activity, including a pretty gruesome description of a murder within the cartel.

Also revealed are some amusing blunders made by members of the cartel and how the business of counterfeiting documents is set up much like any other successful organization.

It even shows how inmates in prison are serving their sentences under assumed identities.

Operation Paper Tiger shows how these documents are enabling benefits fraud and points out that most of the people, who immigrate here are poor and need assistance. In other words, it shows how the American taxpayer is picking up the cost for all this.

Benefits fraud is another growing problem. In 2006, Los Angeles was losing an estimated $1.5 billion dollars to benefits fraud.

Also revealed is how the recently defeated amnesty legislation wouldn't have done much to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across our Southern border. Quoting the book, itself:

Border Patrol agents have found fraudulent utility bills -- dating back more than five years, and thus proving residency under the Senate's bill --in the possession of those illegally crossing the border into the United States. Many of the immigrants with the documents had never visited or lived in the country, said one Border Patrol agent who requested anonymity.

This fact is substantiated in the wiretaps, which are available in the book.
Quite simply had this legislation passed, counterfeit documents would have made it easy for just about anyone to qualify as having been here for five, or more years.

Given this, it's possible the bill would have caused a rush to our borders by people seeking to get in on the amnesty provision.

If you are interested in knowing the truth about all the criminal activity, which is hidden in illegal immigration, Operation Paper Tiger is a must read.

Suad has paid a price for revealing this information. Her life has been threatened by the cartel and she is forced to remain in hiding. Since she is hiding with the borders of the United States, one has to assume this cartel has a pretty far reach.

Operation Paper Tiger can be bought directly on the Paper Weapons site, here.

Suad has been interviewed extensively by the mainstream media, including Lou Dobbs, Paula Zahn, Fox, CNN, Univision and La Opinion. Many of these stories are linked to the Paper Weapons site.

She has also produced her own set of YouTube videos, which can also be seen on the site.

I highly recommend reading this novel, which reveals Suad's and the government's efforts to keep us out of harm's way!


Pedro Leija-Sanchez serving time in prison under an assumed name.

Previous posts, where Suad is mentioned can be seen, here.

ICE raids two more companies and discovers stolen identities being used by illegal immigrants

Two more food processing companies have been raided by ICE (Immmigration and Customs Enforcement) in the past week. At least some of the illegal immigrants detained were found to be using stolen identities.

In North Carolina, 25 of the illegal immigrants were using the identities of U.S. citizens.

From the ICE press release:

United States Attorney George E. B. Holding announced today that his office has obtained criminal complaints charging 25 individuals with identity theft and various immigration violations. These individuals were arrested on Aug. 22, 2007, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as part of an investigation that focused on individuals who were working at the Smithfield Processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., and who had, as part of the commission of other crimes, transferred, possessed or used the identification of someone else in violation of federal law. The United States Attorney will ask the federal grand jury to consider these cases in the near future.

Meanwhile, in Ohio raids were conducted on Koch Foods and 160 illegal immigrants were detained. While this was going on a search warrant was executed at their corporate office in Chicago.

From the ICE press release:

Special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today executed criminal search warrants at Koch Foods in Fairfield, Ohio. ICE identified more than 180 Koch employees working at the Fairfield plant requiring further questioning and administratively arrested more than 160 as of 4PM for immigration violations. ICE agents simultaneously executed criminal search warrants at Koch's corporate office in Chicago.

There is no disclosure as to whether any of these people were using other people's identities.

In both press releases, ICE outlined the reasons for the raids:

Unlawful employment is one of the key magnets drawing illegal aliens across our borders," said Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for ICE. "When illegal aliens use fraudulent documents or engage in identity theft, they not only exploit a vulnerability, they also cause real harm to U.S. citizens. We will pursue egregious violators by seeking criminal charges and continue to deploy tools such as the new social security no match guidelines to help businesses comply with the law."

Besides unlawful employment, there is a flourishing trade in counterfeit documents that enables a lot of illegal immigrants to obtain employment.

Suad Leija's Paper Weapons site is a place, where you can get an inside look at how bad this problem is. It also shows how other crimes, besides illegal immigration are tied into the trade.

Suad is currently writing a book, which will go into a lot of detail about the trade in paper weapons.

ICE press release on the North Carolina raid, here.

ICE press release on the Ohio and Illinois raids, here.

Previous posts on how illegal immigration ties into other crimes can be viewed, here.

Will Social Security number verification slow down illegal immigration?

Employers will soon have to take action against employees, who have a Social Security number that doesn't exist, or doesn't match the name associated with it. In the past, they were able to ignore the fact that these types of discrepancies existed.

With statistics showing that employee fraud and abuse cost corporations billions of dollars, it's amazing that employers would ignore that the person they have working for them might not be, who they claim they are.

DHS (Department of Homeland Security) has already provided a SSN validator for employers to use, which shows, whether or not the number was ever issued. The problem is that it doesn't show who the number belongs to.

As I blogged in a earlier post, this has led to more and more cases of illegal immigrants stealing real people's numbers to maintain their employment. The posts also explains how employers could already be doing more to verify, who their employees really are.

Over the weekend, the issue hit the news again.

Suzanne Gamboa and Anabelle Garay of the AP report:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employers across the country may have to fire workers with questionable Social Security numbers to avoid getting snagged in a Bush administration crackdown on illegal immigrants.

The Department of Homeland Security is expected to make public soon new rules for employers notified when a worker's name or Social Security number is flagged by the Social Security Administration.

The rule as drafted requires employers to fire people who can't be verified as a legal worker and can't resolve within 60 days why the name or Social Security number on their W-2 doesn't match the government's database.

Employers who don't comply could face fines of $250 to $10,000 per illegal worker and incident.

AP story, here.

We've already seen an increase in stories -- where someone goes to file their taxes, or find another job only to discover their Social Security number has been being used -- sometimes by more than one person.

Recently, the story of a financial crimes detective, Adrian Flores, who had his identity stolen was covered in the LA Times. It appears that more than one person used Detective Flores' number. Before he cleared his name, he went through a lot of grief from various private and government agencies, including the IRS.

What scared me the most about Detective Flores' story was that he is obviously of Hispanic descent. Does that mean that citizens with Hispanic surnames are going to be victimized because their names will be more considered more desirable?

This is a whole new take on the sometimes sensitive issue of "profiling."

Bob Sullivan (MSNBC) blogged about this issue extensively at the Red Tape Chronicles, here.

During the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the immigration bill -- Lou Dobbs interviewed Suad Leija, the stepdaughter of one of the main players in a organized crime family producing counterfeit documents -- who is assisting federal authorities in identifying members of the cartel. Suad aptly pointed out to Lou that if the bill passed, the counterfeit cartel's business would have exploded because dates could be fixed to reflect whatever date qualified a person for amnesty.

Could the same groups be preparing to provide their own version of Real ID to the millions of people illegally living in this country?

According to Suad, the fake documents are as "good as anything you have in your pocket."

If you go to Suad's Paper Weapons


Suad's interview with Lou, here.

Exactly, how the rules will change remains to be seen. What worries me is the organized crime machine behind providing the documents and identities always seem to stay one step ahead of the authorities.

Getting stolen identities shouldn't present too much of a challenge to the groups counterfeiting documents. There already is an underground market selling this information, also.

This could translate into more people having their identities abused than ever before.

As long as the consequences for stealing identities are viewed as a not very serious crime, the problem will continue.

There are no easy answers to this problem -- but perhaps if there were harsher consequences for counterfeiting, the use of counterfeit documents and stealing identities -- the problem would be easier to deal with.

As long as employers are taking advantage of cheap labor, which is the reason most of these people are coming here, the solution isn't going to be an easy one.

We have to ask ourselves at what cost will this be allowed to continue?

Paper weapons (counterfeit documents) enable more serious crimes than illegal immigration and identity theft

Suad Leija

Counterfeit (forged) documents are used by illegal immigrants, financial crime artists (fraudsters) and even terrorists. 9/11 proved this a few years back - when it was discovered that several of the hijackers (terrorists) used forged documents to obtain legitimate state-issued driver's licenses.

And this can't be the only time terrorists have used counterfeit documents - jihadist training materials teach their disciples to use these documents to blend into our society, as well as to pay for their expenses. Al Qaeda's training manual (courtesy of Frontline) illustrates this, here.

Several months ago, I saw one of the first stories about Suad Leija and wrote about her. Since then I've mentioned her in a couple of posts. This led to her husband making contact with me, and eventually speaking to Suad, herself.

Suad Leija is trying to educate the public that counterfeit documents pose a serious problem to our safety and national security. And who would know better than Suad, who was raised around one of the biggest organized crime groups providing counterfeit documents to anyone willing to pay for them.

Suad is the step-daughter of Manuel Leija Sanchez, described as the "boss" of the Chicago cell of the Castorena Leija-Sanchez crime family. The ICE press release about his recent arrest can be seen, here.

Mr. Leija-Sanchez has been arrested in the past for selling counterfeit documents (several times), narcotics and assault. He is currently serving a one-year sentence in Illinois for this latest arrest. More details about how he ended up only getting one-year sentence are on Suad's YouTube videos, which can be seen on her Paper Weapons site (highly recommended and linked to further down in this post).

I asked Suad about her bodyguards - mentioned in other articles about her - reported as being Polish. She told me that they were represented to her as Polish, but didn't really know. Interestingly enough, they taught Suad to speak a little Russian.

This made me reflect on speculation that Eastern European organized crime is involved in all the major data-breaches involving the theft of personal and financial data. They would need resources to turn their information into counterfeit devices.

Eastern European organized crime is (also) known to be involved in human smuggling and there are illegal immigrants of Eastern European origin all over the world. Sometimes, we need to remember that illegal immigrants aren't only from Mexico.

Law enforcement officials from Canada and Great Britain have voiced their concerns in public about connections between organized crime and terrorism in the recent past.

Of course, the FBI has been saying the same thing for awhile (since 2002), here.

I asked Suad how many people she thought used counterfeit identification to obtain legitimate documents and she told me that was why items, such as utility bills are popular. Suad describes these items as "feeder documents," which are then used to obtain more legitimate identification.

As long as feeder documents are acceptable to prove legal status, putting security features on legitimate documents will do little to stop the problem. This is especially true, when some of the documents used as feeder documents might come from anywhere in the world.

Hazardous material licenses are even forged - allowing hazardous materials to be illegally transported. Besides the possibility of a freak accident occurring (if used in an intentional manner) a lot of innocent people could be hurt, or killed because of a forged hazmat license.

Counterfeit documents can be used to cross borders, board airplanes and it seems (more recently) obtain access to sensitive government facilities.

ICE recently arrested quite a few illegal aliens working at some of these secure government facilities.

Suad is currently in hiding (under the protection of her husband) - there are reports that her step-father has threatened her life after he is released. Manuel Leija-Sanchez and Pedro Castorena are both in custody - but there is no telling for how long - and their organizations still appear to in business.

ICE press release on Pedro Castorena's arrest, here.

According to Suad's website Paper Weapons:

The Castorena Leija-Sanchez crime organization is the major supplier of counterfeit documents/paper weapons in the United States. They are based in Mexico and have been operating in the United States for 17 years. They are in every major US city and earn approximately 300 million dollars per year.

Paper Weapons site, here.

The site has a chilling flash presentation showing pictures of 9-11 terrorists and members of the Castorena Leija-Sanchez family on fake counterfeit identification.

Suad's story has been covered by the mainstream media (Lou Dobbs, Paula Zahn, CBS, Univision), here.

Her personal story (in her own words) can also be seen in a series of YouTube presentations, along with the stories from the mainstream media.

Some other items were pointed out to me as a result of this conversation. There are 15 million illegal immigrants in the country today, and the reason they are here is to make money. If the jobs weren't readily available (and they seem to be), the problem wouldn't be anywhere as big as it is now.

The motivation of most of these people is to escape poverty - and believe it or not - people on public assistance in the United States live like "kings" in comparison to how they live in their own countries.

Then there is the matter of how any program could be administered. Embassies across the world are already overwhelmed with visa requests and how would these people be effectively screened?

It was also pointed out to me that if a guest worker program were implemented, it probably wouldn't be long before the required identification to be a guest worker was being counterfeited, also.

Documents being counterfeited is nothing new (counterfeiting has been around for centuries). But with recent advances in technology, it's becoming pretty easy to do. The quality of the documents is getting better and security features are being compromised quicker than ever before.

The problem of counterfeit documents goes far beyond poor people doing menial labor (jobs that no one seems to really want). In fact, they are enabling much more serious activity, and this is where we need to direct our focus.