Member of fake ID ring gets 11 years
Man, 34, produced counterfeit cards at Glendale apartment
Rocky Mountain News
Published February 17, 2006 at midnight
A 34-year-old man from Mexico was sentenced this week to more than 11 years in prison for his role in a ring that produced fake Social Security cards, driver's licenses and resident alien cards and distributed them in Colorado, California and Illinois.
Colorado U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock imposed the sentence on Francisco Javier Miranda- Espinosa on Monday.
Prosecutors said Miranda-Espinosa was a longtime member of a counterfeit documents ring known as the Castorena Family Organization, making and distributing fake IDs from at least 1999 through February 2005.
Court documents said Miranda- Espinosa admitted moving from Los Angeles to Denver in August 2004 to make and distribute counterfeit identity documents. He brought a computer and software and operated a fake ID factory in an apartment in Glendale. He also trained others in operating the equipment, the documents said.
Within months of his arrival in Denver, Miranda-Espinosa sent a computer, software, bulk quantities of fake Social Security cards and related items to Chicago to set up a fake ID factory there, according to court documents.
In January 2005, federal immigration agents raided Miranda-Espinosa's Aurora residence and found hundreds of fake IDs, blank Social Security cards, laminates for resident alien cards and driver's licenses for locations in the U.S. and Mexico. They also found a silk-screen printing press with various inks and chemicals.
The following month, federal agents found similar equipment and items in the Glendale apartment and at an address in Chicago.
A plea agreement said Miranda- Espinosa conspired with others, including federal fugitive Pedro Castorena-Ibarra, an alleged ringleader in the Castorena Family Organization, to wire proceeds of the counterfeit ID business to Los Angeles and Mexico.
Federal prosecutors said the ring is believed to be one of the largest fake ID organizations in the United States. A federal grand jury in Denver indicted Castorena-Ibarra in July 2005.
Miranda-Espinosa pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit money laundering and other crimes related to the fake ID business.
"This significant sentence recognizes how the Castorena Family Organization's fraudulent document ring creates immeasurable national security problems," Jeffrey Copp, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge of the Denver office, said in a statement Thursday.
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