Ogden man charged with creating fake IDs

An Ogden man appeared in federal court Monday after he was accused of creating and selling phony identification documents in his home last week.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say Sergio Aguilar, 35, is charged with involvement in operating a counterfeit document mill. He is suspected of supplying fake immigration and identity documents to buyers throughout the country.

He faces three counts of illegal possession, including possession of distinctive paper for immigration documents, possession of false immigration documents and possession of false identification documents. Additional charges may be added after the case is presented to a federal grand jury next week.

Immigration officers identified Aguilar, a Mexican national, after they were notified that he might be involved in the production of counterfeit Social Security cards, resident alien cards and state drivers' licenses. That information led to a three-month probe that resulted in Aguilar's arrest on Thursday.

Agents also arrested three other Mexican nationals, all of whom had prior criminal convictions and were suspected of being involved in the document mill believed to have been in Aguilar's residence, according to Joseph Romel, assistant special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Utah.

He said one of the individuals arrested had just arrived as a potential customer, with money and photos in hand, as the search was nearing completion.

"Trafficking in counterfeit documents poses a serious security vulnerability and contributes to a host of other types of crimes, including identity theft and financial fraud," Romel said. "Our goal is to identify and ultimately dismantle the criminal organizations behind these highly lucrative schemes."

The number of identity and benefit fraud investigations have increased dramatically in the past two years, Romel said. With that increase, ICE has made more arrests and followed through on hundreds of indictments.

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