Elgin police and agents from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said Thursday they had broken up a major counterfeit document ring based in Elgin.
The alleged head of the ring, Rogelio Ramirez-Perez, 21, was arrested Wednesday during a raid of his apartment at 1643 Mulberry Court. He was charged with manufacturing counterfeit immigration and Social Security documents.
Ramirez-Perez, described by authorities as an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was caught with 1,000 counterfeit immigrant-registration “green cards” and 1,000 fake Social Security cards.
“The number of documents he had indicated that it was a large operation,” said David Venturella, a spokesman for the immigration service.
Sgt. Brad Entler, of the Elgin Police Department’s special operations group, said the operation was the latest in a series of illegal document operations discovered in Elgin.
Since December, local police have broken up seven other similar operations, Entler said. Additional operations have been traced to Elgin by federal authorities, he said.
Venturella said federal authorities have issued a warrant on counterfeiting charges for a man related to Ramirez-Perez.
