Man Sentenced for Selling Fraudulent ID Cards

ATLANTA - Horacio Sanchez-Lopez has been sentenced to one year and two months in federal prison for conspiring to manufacture, sell, and distribute counterfeit federal Permanent Resident and Social Security cards.

“Trafficking in counterfeit immigration and Social Security documents threatens the integrity of systems which verify employment,” said U. S. Attorney John Horn. “Forged documents not only circumvent those systems, but can also be used for more nefarious activities.”

“Fraudulent identity documents pose a serious threat to public safety as they enable people to commit a broad range of criminal offenses from identity theft to financial crimes,” said Nick S. Annan, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations Atlanta. “HSI will continue to actively pursue individuals who engage in this type of criminal activity that threatens the safety and security of our communities.”

According to U.S. Attorney Horn, the charges and other information presented in court: In the summer of 2014, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents began investigating a conspiracy that sold counterfeit identification documents in the Chamblee, Georgia, area. Working through cooperating individuals, agents bought several pairs of Permanent Resident and Social Security cards from Horacio Sanchez-Lopez and a co-conspirator, Jorge Manuel Rosado. Sanchez-Lopez or Rosado delivered the documents to customers who ordered them over the phone from another individual, and they sold the documents to confidential informants for between $80 and $120 per set.

On October 16, 2014, agents executed a search warrant at the house in Chamblee where Sanchez-Lopez, Rosado, and others lived.  While the conspirators had moved the computer they had been using to make the fraudulent documents, agents found, among other things, a used printer ribbon that lab analysis later found contained 215 images of ID cards. Agents also recovered 93 fraudulent cards that had been cut in half and thrown in a trash can, and a smart phone that contained thousands of passport-style photos for ID cards.

Horacio Sanchez-Lopez, 42, of Chamblee, Georgia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May to one year, two months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Sanchez-Lopez is an illegal alien from Mexico, and has been ordered to be transferred for deportation proceedings. Sanchez-Lopez was convicted on these charges on October 8, 2015, after he pleaded guilty.

Jorge Manuel Rosado, 45, of Chamblee, Georgia, pleaded guilty on September 11, 2015, to a conspiracy charge and was sentenced to prison for fifteen months by Judge May.

The conspiracy remains under investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations.

Assistant United States Attorney William G. Traynor is prosecuting the case.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.