Mexico's Version of La Cosa Nostra Spreads Like a Virus

American Chronicle ^ | July 23, 2008 | Jim Kouri, CPP

[SJackson]

The Castorena Family Organization is a large-scale criminal organization with more than 100 key members who oversee cells of 10 to 20 individuals in cities across the United States, according to public court documents filed by the US government in Colorado and in other judicial districts around the country.

Several of the senior leaders of the organization are believed to be based in Mexico, although they enter the US occasionally to oversee the operations of lieutenants of the crime family.

The organization is alleged to be involved in the manufacture and distribution of high-quality counterfeit identity documents, including social security cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, US and Mexican driver licenses, Matricula Consular ID cards, resident alien cards, work authorization documents, proof of vehicle insurance cards, temporary vehicle registration documents, and utility bills (many states require driver license applicants to show utility bills as proof of residence).

Court documents also indicate that the CFO started out in Los Angeles in the late 1980s, primarily manufacturing and selling counterfeit alien registration and social security cards. The organization soon expanded its counterfeit document operations to other cities across the United States, including New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, Albuquerque, and other cities.

Over the past decade, the CFO has been managed by six Castorena-Ibarra siblings: Pedro, Alfonso, Jose, Maria, Francisco Javier, and Raquel. During the last several years, three of these siblings, Pedro, Maria and Francisco Javier, have maintained direct involvement in the counterfeiting operations of the CFO in Denver and elsewhere. In recent years, several of these siblings have been arrested and prosecuted in the United States. Others have fled to Mexico to avoid US prosecution.

The CFO has been the target of federal investigations in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Denver, Lincoln, NE, and Des Moines, IA.

For example, Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations of the CFO in Los Angeles in the late 1990s resulted in the seizure of millions of counterfeit documents with an estimated street value of $20 million.

The documents were linked to more than 400 investigations and seizures in more than 50 cities in 33 states. The American Express Corporation attributed more than $2 million in losses to counterfeit identification documents that were traced to the CFO just in Los Angeles.

In Denver, ICE investigations into the CFO have resulted in the criminal prosecution of more than 50 individuals. Dozens of additional members of the CFO in Denver have been arrested and deported to Mexico, Colombia, and El Salvador. ICE agents in Denver have also been responsible for the seizure of at least 20 computerized laboratories affiliated with the CFO and used to manufacture high-quality counterfeit identity documents. Agents have also seized 21 computers, 21 silk screen printing templates used to produce counterfeit documents, and nine handguns.

Court documents indicate that CFO cells in various US cities are exceptionally well organized. CFO cell leaders typically keep schedules with the names of each counterfeit document vendor and the times they are to report to a designated area to sell fake documents. The local cell leaders also record the number and type of false documents sold by vendors during their “shifts,” as well the funds collected for each transaction.

The vendors are allowed to keep a portion of the proceeds, with the remainder passed to the local cell leader. Cell leaders, in turn, pass on a portion of the proceeds to the senior leaders of the CFO. Senior CFO leaders charge a “rent” or “franchise” fee of as much as $15,000 per month for cell leaders to operate in a particular US city. These funds and other proceeds of counterfeit document sales are funneled to Mexico and other locations for those overseeing the CFO.

The organization moves its funds through three primary methods. Often, funds are wire transferred via money transmitter businesses. In other cases, bulk cash and checks are moved through express parcel services. In addition, the organization often employs couriers who physically transport US currency across US borders and between US cities.

Sources: US Department of Justice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Jim Kouri, CPP is fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and served in law enforcement for over 25 years.

[gubamyster]

ping

[Gritty]

Why do people always think that illegal aliens can commit all the crimes they want and get away with it while citizens will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law?

You write for The Onion, right?

I can walk down any street in my town or into the Wal-Mart any hour of the day and night and see these illegal alien criminals walking around free. They don't even bother to hide.

Not only that, but they do sometimes get hauled in by the law (if they're caught redhanded at something). Often they are released on their own recognizance or small bonds. Usually most disappear before their court dates if it is anything serious. The ones that show up are generally let go or given tiny fines - not turned over to ICE or jailed even though they're already guilty of multiple other crimes simply due to how they got here and how they manage to stay and milk the system. "How" they do it is not legally, I'll tell you. But, as a lawyer, you already know that, right?

How many genuine Americans get arrested on serious crimes like document and Social Security fraud (and a host of other crimes) and simply get away with it, time and time again? Or even do these crimes? Does the number reach 100% - like these people?

They are getting prosecuted tougher than the rest of us? HA!

I want some of what you're smokin', Dude. That's some mighty fine weed!

[AuntB]

“Now that Organized Crime is tied in with Illegal Immigration, the FBI will be on their case. “

You would think, huh? This has gone on for years and they don’t seem to notice. In fact, when these same Mexican crime organizations grow dope in your national forests and parks, the feds tell our local sheriffs, ‘It’s not our problem’.

[TKDietz]

When it comes to state crimes I believe they do get prosecuted just like the rest of us, if not harder. Immigration is a different matter, and in many cases not having legal immigration status is not actually a crime. That's not what I'm talking about though. I'm talking about the kind of criminal conduct citizens get arrested for, stealing, drug crimes, DWI, etc. Illegals are getting punished just as hard or harder than citizens for regular crime.

Deporting illegals is a federal responsibility. States don't do that. For the most part states don't enforce federal statutes. They enforce state laws, and immigration laws tend to be federal laws, not state laws.

The feds are doing a little better now than they were though. There was a time when I used to watch so many illegal aliens plead to pretty serious felonies and when the state was done with them they'd get out of jail and go on back to their lives here in the states. Hardly any were getting deported even though they'd be sitting in our county jails ready for ICE to come pick them up. ICE would know they were there and have a “hold” on them, but would never send anyone to get them so eventually the jailers would have to let them go, as there would be no basis to hold them under state law. Things have changed a lot in this respect. In my area at least where they'd never hardly pick up anyone, not even those convicted of fairly serious felonies, they're deporting people left and right now. A couple might slip through the cracks but almost every illegal who gets a felony will be deported, as will an increasing number of those popped for misdemeanors. They're also going out on runs and picking up people convicted of crimes in the past, illegals and those here legally. They're deporting a lot of folks and we're seeing record numbers of people being prosecuted for illegally reentering the country after being deported, which is a good thing because in the past they all felt they could just come right back after being deported and nothing would happen to them. Now they're looking at prison time, up to 20 years without parole, and those with bad records are getting several years in many cases when get caught back in the country. It's not perfect by a long shot, but it's a big improvement over what we saw in the recent past.

[doc]

“Thank you, Jorge Bush. You kept Al-Qai’da from killing us so we could be murdered in our homes by criminals you let into the country with your crackpot “compassion.”

It has nothing to do with compassion and everything to do with pushing the NAU(North American Union).

[E. Cartman]

It has nothing to do with compassion and everything to do with pushing the NAU(North American Union).

Because all America has seen our "leaders" turning a blind eye to openly criminal behaviour, they've engendered a disrespect for the law and for American leadership in general more widespread than Al-Qai'da or the former Soviets could have ever hoped for in their wildest dreams. With their wink-wink "enforcement" of our borders they are succesfully turning what was once a largely law abiding nation into one where the new standard operating procedure will be business under the table, bribes and corruption. And, saddest of all, in trying to ram his illegal alien amnesty down our throats, Mr. Bush not only completely squandered what little political capital remained to him, he ensured that there would remain an animus of rancor and disgust toward the GOP after him and to his political heirs.