May 30, 2007

Chicago alderman's father target of document forgery investigation

Back in April, the Feds raided a shopping center in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood to break up a document forgery ring that also involved an attempted murder. One of the stores raided was a photo store owned by the father of Chicago Alderman Ricardo Munoz (22nd); at the time he said that his father had no involvement in the alleged crimes. And, the raid generated a march through the streets with illegal immigration supporters going as far as saying that "Soldiers bombarded our neighborhood".

Now comes this:

ABC7 has learned from a source close to the Munoz family that Elias Munoz will fight the charges maintaining that he only sold photos and had nothing to do with any conspiracy to make fake IDs. But the feds claim the 22nd Ward alderman's father was a major player and target of Operation Paper Tiger.

Federal agents allege that a ring of fake ID sellers that operated for at least 3 1/2 years in the parking lot of a Little Village strip mall routinely sent their customers -- sometimes over 100 a day -- to Nuevo Foto Munoz, 3105 W. 26th St., to fill out forms and have their pictures taken for $10 each. At another location, the counterfeiters used the snapshots to make bogus Social Security cards, green cards and driver's licenses.

The government claims it has affidavits from informants and undercover agents that will link Elias Munoz to the ring, 13 members of which were arrested in an April 24 raid on the mall. On that day, Elias's son, 22nd Ward Alderman Ricky Munoz, led complaints about how the raid was conducted...

The Feds may or may not be over-selling their case; they found blank identity cards in the shop which are apparently legal, but it isn't known the extent to which they're basing the case on that. See also the PDF from the previous post describing the crimes involved in this case.

Posted to Immigration2007a at May 30, 2007 04:10 PM