Agents Accuse 16 of Producing Fake Documents : Immigrants: Raids on 3 Santa Ana homes and arrests cap a 4-month probe by U.S. agencies of alleged counterfeiting ring. INS seizes equipment and false ‘green cards.’

Capping a four-month investigation by three federal agencies, three Santa Ana residences were raided early Wednesday and 16 people were arrested for alleged involvement in a counterfeiting ring that produced fake Social Security and immigrant registration cards.

During the raids, Immigration and Naturalization Service agents seized 1,000 counterfeit Social Security and immigrant “green cards,” lamination machines, typewriters, $2,000 in cash, a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, ammunition for the handgun, and a stolen U.S. Treasury Department check.

The INS released the names of three of five people who were arraigned Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of counterfeiting documents and who remained in custody of federal authorities in Los Angeles. The three are Guadalupe Dominguez-Cruz, 28, Maribel Marin-Cruz, 19, and Ruby Herrera-Gonzalez, 29, according to INS agent Robert H. Reed. The names of the two other counterfeiters were not immediately available, Reed said.

The 11 other people in custody after the raids, including three related women, were suspected of federal document fraud violations. Deportation proceedings against the 11 have begun.

“All of them, as far as we know, are illegal immigrants from Mexico,” Reed said.

The alleged counterfeiters were arrested at two residences on Garnsey Street and another on West Highland Street, a few blocks from Santa Ana High School, authorities said.

Reed said the INS and the two other agencies that took part in the investigation--the U.S. Postal Service and the Secret Service--are unsure how many additional people may be involved in the counterfeiting ring. But they believe the Santa Ana operation was part of a larger counterfeiting operation, possibly based in Los Angeles.

Reed said a package deal for a fake “green card” and a Social Security card usually commands about $100 on the street. Agents had no way of knowing how many people had secured false papers from the operation smashed Wednesday, but speculated that the number could be in the hundreds, and perhaps the thousands.

Neighbors said federal agents stormed into the two-story apartment building on Highland Street with guns drawn. “I was out fixing a car when . . . three cars pulled up,” said Juan Gabino, 38, who collects the rent at the Highland Street complex.

“They pulled out five people from Apartment 4 and carted them all off,” he said.

Gabino said that the people in the apartment had been living there about a year and that he knew them only by sight, “nothing more.” They paid their $850 rent on time and “I never had any problems with them.”

Gabino said he saw people frequenting the apartment “at all hours” but had no idea that it was a place where people could pick up fake documents.

Some neighbors said it was common knowledge that illegal immigrants could get fake immigrant documents at the apartment complex. They said the area is drug-infested as well.

“This area was a good area before,” said a woman who refused to give her name. “Now we have a lot of problems with drugs. We call the police all the time. We take down license plates. I’ve never seen so many drugs in my life,” she lamented.