9 Arrested in Counterfeit Operation : Canoga Park: Police say ring is one of the largest in the state, making documents ranging from driver’s licenses to Social Security cards.

After purchasing phony driver’s licenses in the names of Gov. Pete Wilson and City Councilwoman Laura Chick, a task force of law enforcement agents arrested nine people and seized hundreds of phony documents at a Canoga Park apartment Friday.

The ring, which authorities believe is one of the largest in the state, made counterfeit California driver’s licenses, Social Security cards, automobile ownership papers and various immigration documents, said Los Angeles Police Detective Bob Graybill.

“This was a major operation,” said Graybill, the head of the task force, at a news conference after the raid. “But I think we got the main people here today.”

The counterfeit ring came to light recently, Graybill said, in the wake of a rash of reports of bad checks coming into merchants along a stretch of Sherman Way near Canoga Avenue. The checks were cashed using counterfeit driver’s licenses for identification, Graybill said.

An anonymous tip led task force members to a shopping center parking lot on the 21000 block of Sherman Way, he said, where alleged members of the ring were openly dealing in the counterfeit wares.

Working undercover, task force members bought several documents, including those in the names of well-known politicians.

“I thought it was an interesting twist to use my name,” said Chick, who gave police permission to use her name in the operation.

“These are obviously not politically astute people . . . these are not exactly look-alikes,” she added, holding up phony licenses with pictures of a woman who did not look remotely like her and a flannel shirt-wearing Pete Wilson wanna-be.

In a raid of the single-bedroom apartment at the Westview Apartments, 21217 Gault St., undercover officers found a laminating machine, a typewriter and hundreds of blank documents.

“The quality of the counterfeiting is very good, especially with the crude kind of set-up they had,” said Vito Scattaglia, a Department of Motor Vehicles investigator who was a member of the task force.

The nine people arrested were: Victor Joel, 18; Julio Salsa Bustamante, 18; Jose Fidel Navarrette, 26; Francisco Villa, 29; Cesar Serna, 18; Miguel Pulio, 24; Jose Jimenez, 18; Sergio Alonzo Marquez, 18; Jesus Machado, 40, and a male juvenile.