As more and more bad people come to New York, gangbangers openly sell fake IDs and green cards to immigrants, which could pose a security risk.
Criminals with ties to MS-13 and other gangs are selling fake social security cards and green cards to immigrants on Queens Street corners. This is a dangerous security risk, as a lot of bad newcomers come to New York City.
This week, The Post saw at least 10 men selling fake papers for $80 to $250 at four different corners along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens during the day.
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People who have fake social security numbers can use them to open a bank account and maybe even get a real driver’s license.
People who come to the United States legally can live and work there with permanent resident cards, also called “green cards.”
Many immigrants who want to work in industries where employers don’t scrutinize documents too closely buy fake documents.
But some people can have much worse plans.
Bruce Foucart, a former special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in New England, warned that someone with such identification could “load up a truck with bombs and bring it under the Holland Tunnel and create something major and disastrous.”
“For someone who wishes to conduct terrorist activities or poses a threat to national security, it is easy to establish a second life within the United States,” noted Foucart.
“I guarantee right now, we’re just waiting for another 9/11.”
The Post made observations along Roosevelt between 82nd and 103rd Streets, stretching from Jackson Heights to Elmhurst and Corona:
Outside the La Gata Golosa bakery, five hooded men whispered “social, social” to passersby and chatted with Spanish-speaking clients. A Post reporter was offered pristine permanent residency and social security cards for $80. “They work,” the shady salesman assured, displaying an example of the forged documents on his phone. “I need your name, your whole name, your age…I can take your picture.”
Members of the group darted from the corner into a stairwell below the Madelyn Salon on 82nd Street, with customers in tow. According to one observer, cash handoffs and document pick-ups take place behind a glass door.
Another fake ID vendor, sitting outside an insurance office between 102nd and 103rd Streets, was selling a fake green card for $180 and a fake social security card for $70.00. According to the vendor, “many” people buy the fakes, but he would not specify how many he sold.
A black-market seller lured a reporter into a stairwell beneath a barber shop, where he asked the reporter to enter his name, age, and country of origin. Salesmen initially requested $200 for a green card and social security card, but the price was negotiated down to $80. The Post did not purchase the cards.
According to footage posted by the Instagram account Zombiesinnyc, Another fake document peddler was captured on video sitting on a chair on the sidewalk under the elevated train tracks.
According to a high-ranking police source, the Roosevelt Avenue sellers are affiliated with the 18th Street gang and with the ruthless MS-13.
In addition to selling fake IDs, both gangs originate in Los Angeles and are known for violence and drug trafficking.
“It’s a big business,” said a source
According to Foucart, the transnational criminal organizations that run these mills may have also helped smuggle in migrants, creating a “one-stop shop” for undocumented newcomers.
A fake ID epicentre on Roosevelt Avenue has long been known to investigators as the “East Coast epicentre.”
The area has also been a hotbed of prostitution, with The Post recently exposing the open-air “Market of Sweethearts,” as it is known in popular YouTube videos.
The fake ID mills that are present in the area outrage the locals and workers.
The next time they do social security numbers and nobody says anything, it will be weapons and passports,” said Zee Omar, 24, a clerk at Candy Grocery Food Corp.
“Everyone can do what they want now.”
Since the spring of 2022, nearly 180,000 migrants have moved to the city, resulting in a greater demand for identification cards.
A resident stated, “People from other boroughs are coming specifically to this area to obtain their IDs, all the new migrants are coming here.”.
The fake documents provide migrants with access to a range of services that are otherwise unavailable to them without identification from the government, according to Roy Fenoff, an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the Citadel in South Carolina.
It is important to note that once people possess these fake cards, they can work, travel, and access a wide range of aspects and services in the United States. People who don’t want a job but instead want to engage in criminal activity are obtaining these cards.
According to him, the social security cards are fake, but the numbers are genuine, so U.S. citizens may be affected.
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“If I am using the social security number of another individual, and then I am committing crimes, and I am using [their] name, you may have warrants available for the arrest of innocent people, as you don’t know who this person is,” he said, citing a case in which he handled the theft of a Denver woman’s identification.
According to law enforcement experts, rogue migrants may also use fake documents to avoid developing criminal records under their real names.
If they have never been fingerprinted, under their fake name, they can be arrested five, six, seven, or eight times…and they would never have a record,” said John Cutter, retired NYPD deputy chief of the Intelligence Division.
“With fake IDs, they become [a] ghost, so they become more emboldened and more willing to break the law and potentially do something serious,” he continued.
Diego Ibarra, the brother of Jose Ibarra, who is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley at the University of Georgia, is in federal custody alleged to possess a fake green card, which he used to get a job.
Diego’s linked to a brutal Venezuelan gang before.
Making fake ID in New York is a felony punishable by seven years in prison — “criminal possession of a forged instrument.”
The NYPD is looking into any potential lawbreaking on the strip.
“The NYPD will continue to address conditions…on Roosevelt Avenue,” an NYPD spokesperson said.
Cutter estimates that there are likely tens of thousands of fake green and social security cards in use in New York City, although it is impossible to estimate how many of these fake cards are in circulation or how much value they hold on the black market.
Despite the spike in migrants, Fenoff notes that the production and sale of forged documents is increasing in New York City.
