Free Republic

Feds: Fake-ID ring killed to stay ahead Mexico says it has captured leader; his stepdaughter cheers By Antonio Olivo Tribune staff reporter 11:24 PM CDT, October 24, 2007 The violent and sometimes improbable saga of a fake ID ring that stretched from Little Village to Mexico City reached a climax Wednesday, when federal authorities announced that they had captured the leader in Mexico and charged him with murder and racketeering. U.S. law enforcement officials in Chicago said Mexican authorities caught up Friday with Manuel Leija-Sanchez, 40, saying he was the leader of a Little Village-based operation since at least 1993....

One day in the winter of 1996, while 12-year-old Suad Leija was getting ready for school, more than a dozen armed FBI agents raided her family's Chicago-area home. They were looking for her stepfather, Manuel Leija-Sanchez, who federal authorities believe runs a document-fraud network -- producing fake passports, Social Security cards, driver's licenses and a variety of other official papers -- with cells throughout the United States. That cold morning, the agents were too late. Manuel Leija-Sanchez had fled during the night to Mexico after he was tipped off to the impending raid, his stepdaughter recalled. The business continued to...

Manuel Leija Sanchez Sentenced To One Year (CBS) CHICAGO The man the 2 Investigators exposed as running a multi-million dollar phony document ring here in Chicago was sentenced to a year in prison Monday. Manuel Leija Sanchez pled guilty to possession of a fake ID like the ones the CBS 2 Investigators purchased in an undercover sting. Pam Zekman reported on the brazen sales operations at a 26th Street shopping center in the Little Village area. A spokesman for the state's attorney's office says that after Sanchez serves his sentence, he will be held for deportation. Meanwhile, as Pam reported,...

Suad Leija has many secrets. The stepdaughter of Manuel Leija-Sanchez -- a key figure in what federal authorities believe is a document fraud organization run by the Castorena and Leija-Sanchez families -- has been in hiding and on the run from her own family. To help U.S. authorities crack down on document fraud, human smuggling and a host of other international crimes, she has revealed her family business, identified relatives and shed light on a series of national security failures. Fraudulent documents allegedly produced by the families include Social Security cards, driver's licenses, passports, hazardous materials licenses, utility bills and...