Federal agents charge Mexican sold fake 'green cards' (Nashua Telegraph)

Federal agents charge Mexican sold fake 'green cards'
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 08:48AM
- Andrew Wolfe

CONCORD - A Mexican man who had been kicked out of the United States twice before was caught selling counterfeit "green cards" in Nashua, according to federal immigration officers.

Israel Velasquez-Juarez, 34, a Mexican national, was arrested Sept. 20 after travelling to Nashua from the Boston, Mass., area to meet with an informant who had arranged to buy six sets of Permanent Resident (green cards) and Social Security cards for $1,260, according to an affidavit by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jonathan Posthumus.

The defendant used the alias "Eduardo Garcia," but identified himself to ICE agents as Velasquez-Juarez, and his fingerprints indicate that he had been caught in the United States twice before, Posthumus wrote. Federal records showed that Velasquez-Juarez had left the country voluntarily in 2000, after being caught by the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, and was deported and handed over to Mexican authorities on Feb. 8, 2010 after being caught again in the United States, Posthumus wrote.

Questioned after his arrest in Nashua, Velasquez-Juarez said he'd snuck back into the country about three months ago, Posthumus wrote.

An informant told ICE officers last month of being able to buy counterfeit identification from a man named in the Boston area, and officers arranged for a second informant to call the man's Metro PCS phone, which was under the name of Eduardo Garcia in East Boston, Posthumus wrote.

The informant arranged to purchase six sets of identification, and sent "Garcia" photos and biographical information via cellular phone. ICE agents recorded their conversations as they made the arrangements, and the informant wore a concealed recorder while meeting with "Garcia" in Nashua on Sept. 20, Posthumus wrote.

"Following the exchange of money by CI 2 for the counterfeit documents, ICE Special Agents arrested the target of the investigation," Posthumus wrote, adding later, "The counterfeit documents purchased were taken into the custody of ICE as evidence and determined to be fraudulent based upon the training and experience of the ICE Special Agents examining them, and based upon the fact that there is no valid manner in which such documents can be legally produced utilizing photographs transmitted over a cell phone."

Velasquez-Juarez was arrested as an "inadmissible alien," and held in the Strafford County jail while awaiting his first appearance in U.S. District Court on charges that he possessed, transferred and sold counterfeit identification documents, court records show.