Feds: Aurora man part of massive Puerto Rican ID theft ring

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An Aurora man was one of 50 people in 15 states and Puerto Rico arrested Wednesday, accused of participating in an identity fraud conspiracy that sold Puerto Rican identities to people living in the United States.

Ismael Alvaro Lopez Rangel — whose age and address and age weren’t released by the Department of Justice — was one of four people arrested in Illinois. Angel Manuel Perea Salaza, was arrested in DeKalb, and two others were arrested in Rockford.

Thirteen people were arrested in Puerto Rico.

All of the men and women were charged with identity trafficking.

The indictment alleges that Rangel was an identity broker. The federal government says that in January 2009, Rangel was able to get an Illinois ID card using the name Ricardo Omar Morales Bigas. A year later, the feds allege, Rangel was able to get a second Illinois ID card using the name Armando Trevino Jr.

Then, using the Trevino name, Rangel wired money to Puerto Rico 17 different times, according to the indictment, which said Rangel sent between $200 and $1,000 from Western Union stations in and around Oswego.

During a recorded conversation with a cooperating witness in September 2011, Rangel admitted that he had documents for sale, authorities said.

According to the indictment, the conspiracy involved a long-distance connection between Puerto Rican suppliers and American identity brokers to sell fake names, state ID cards, driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and voter registration cards, with people in Caguas, Puerto Rico, collecting the identities and corresponding documents of real Puerto Rican residents. Caguas is a large city in the Puerto Rico’s Central Mountain Range, about 20 miles from the capital, San Juan.

While suppliers gathered the names and documents, brokers were looking for customers in the United States. According to indictment, the brokers would find people — usually undocumented or illegal residents — who wanted to buy Puerto Rican Social Security cards and birth certificates. The brokers generally charged between $700 and $2,500 for the set, the indictment said, and would ask customers for half the money up front, which would be sent to suppliers in Puerto Rico. The broker would then call Puerto Rico to order the documents and ask for “skirts” if they needed documents for a woman and “pants” if they needed men’s documents, according to the indictment, with the size of the clothes referring to the age of the customer.

The Puerto Rican suppliers would then mail the documents to America by express or priority mail. When the broker delivered the documents, they would keep the second half of the customer’s payment.

Authorities said the customers sometimes used the documents to commit financial fraud or try to get passports.