Arizona / West

Fake-ID task force busts 10 in Phoenix

PHOENIX - Ten people were arrested Thursday in the first bust by a newly created task force to combat fraudulent identifications. The busts in central Phoenix follow leads developed by undercover state and local law-enforcement officers who posed as illegal entrants looking for legitimate IDs. Leesa Berens Morrison, head of the state's Department of Liquor Licenses and Control, said the officers specifically asked for what is known on the street as a "three pack": a driver's license, a Social Security card and a resident-alien card. Morrison said these sell on the street for $140 to $160. Morrison said the task force, formed this summer by the governor, has 58 other investigations elsewhere in Maricopa County, as well as in Tucson and Flagstaff. Morrison said officers also came up with a van full of computers, scanners and blanks for fake IDs and Social Security cards. "We also found documents that were in process and ready to be sold," she said. As of Thursday night, the 10 people who were arrested had not been formally charged. But Pati Urias, a press aide to Gov. Janet Napolitano, said they face charges including forgery, perjury and conducting an illegal enterprise. She said those arrested were using no special equipment, saying that the technology is such that fairly standard computers and printers can make authentic-looking identification cards. Morrison also said there was no evidence that any of those arrested had obtained legitimate blank IDs from state or federal agencies.