Valley Document Counterfeiters Sentenced to Prison

Two San Fernando Valley men who earlier this year pled guilty to participating in a counterfeit document scheme received federal prison sentences Monday, the Department of Justice announced.Carlos Ayala Hernandez of Granada Hills and Miguel Juarez Guerrero of Van Nuys were respectively sentenced to 30 months and 20 months in federal prison for forging and selling false identification documents.For five years, according to the Justice Department statement, Hernandez, Guerrero and Nestor Perez of Van Nuys operated an illegal business in which they created and sold false identification documents, including passports, permanent resident cards or “green cards,”, Social Security cards and driver’s licenses from multiple states.In January, police executed search warrants on Hernandez’s residence and a Van Nuys apartment. In the residence – where Guerrero also lived – law enforcement reportedly found a counterfeit document lab, including approximately 243 completed false identification documents, about 1,000 fraudulent authentication seals, 14 printers, a scanner and an ultraviolet light used to test the security features on counterfeit ID documents.The men pleaded guilty this spring to counts of conspiracy to produce, transfer and possess false identification documents, and counts of producing false identification documents.