Gustavo Carranza-Villa, age 35, was arrested in connection with manufacturing and trafficking stolen identifications (IDs). The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office received a tip that led detectives to Carranza-Villa, who was believed to be selling fraudulent IDs to businesses for the purpose of helping illegal migrants obtain jobs.
During the investigation it was revealed that Carranza-Villa was arrested previously by Immigration and Customs (ICE) for fraudulently producing US Government documents. The suspect was deported back to Mexico in 2006.
During the 6 month investigation, Sheriff’s detectives working undercover were sold fake U.S. government permanent resident alien ID cards and fake social security cards all being manufactured by Carranza-Villa. The suspect became suspicious of deputies during their investigation and went into hiding; however, Sheriff’s detectives were able to track down Carranza-Villa to a Glendale apartment he was working out of.
Search warrants of Carranza-Villa’s apartment revealed a printer, card stock, printer ribbons and fraudulent identifications ready for delivery- all were seized. Sheriff’s detectives have learned Carranza-Villa has provided IDs that were manufactured in Maricopa County and then later recovered in Bath, NY, during a human smuggling investigation by authorities in New York.
Sheriff Arpaio says, “What is occurring today are massive amounts of identification and financial information being manufactured and used to obtain work in businesses utilizing this false identification.” Arpaio continued, “My office has investigated 79 businesses resulting in the arrest of over 560 suspects utilizing false identifications to obtain jobs, these suspects all came into this country illegally.”