Countywide : 88,000 Fake IDs Seized; 3 Arrested

In what authorities called the largest bust of its kind in Orange County, federal agents Thursday seized more than 88,000 fake Social Security cards, temporary resident cards and immigration “green cards.”

Agents also arrested three Orange County men on suspicion of supplying the false identification.

“We have to take down the main suppliers, and that’s what we have done,” said Robert Moschorak, district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

INS agents arrested Mauro Vasquez-Rubalcava, 48, of Anaheim, Alvino Rubalcava-Ponce, 47, of Santa Ana, and Alvino Rubalcava-Mejia, 20, of Anaheim. The men were charged with distribution and sale of false documents.

They could face up to five years in prison if convicted, according to authorities.

Responding to tips from various sources, officials said they seized the $1.6 million in fake identification cards and counterfeiting equipment at Rubalcava-Mejia’s home and at his storage lot at Southmark Personal Storage Co. in Santa Ana.

INS agents are continuing their four-month investigation and said about a dozen other people may be involved.

The three suspects arrested Thursday were “the major players,” said Robert Reed, supervisory special agent for the INS.

INS officials said they are investigating whether Vasquez-Rubalcava supplied false papers to some of the 233 suspected illegal immigrants who were arrested at Vans athletic shoe manufacturing plant in Orange last month. He worked there for 22 years as a production worker.

Moschorak said the men sold the immigration papers for about $100 to illegal immigrants seeking employment and social benefits. Many were purchased locally, but some were bought and sent to relatives and friends abroad, he alleged.

INS has tried to make documentation more sophisticated and difficult to counterfeit, but officials said the documents seized Thursday were good-quality copies.

Moschorak said the suspected counterfeiters also tended to duplicate older versions of the documents, particularly immigration “green cards” issued before 1978.

“This has a dramatic impact,” Moschorak said. “You can see how widespread this type of activity is.”

In January, INS officials arrested a Santa Ana man and charged him with forging more than 30,000 identification papers, just a week after the mass arrest at Vans shoe plant.

Increased enforcement in the Los Angeles area has “pushed the traffic to the suburbs of Orange County,” said John Bretchel, assistant director of INS investigations.

Officials said numerous job opportunities and the high demand for documents have lured counterfeiters to Orange County.