Federal agents join in bust of alleged fake ID, license maker

Scott Sonner

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 | 9:33 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Federal immigration agents joined in the arrest Tuesday of a Reno man accused of selling hundreds of false international driving permits and fake Nevada identification cards that he says he obtained on the Internet.

Isidro Alejandrez, 27, was arrested and a search warrant executed at his business, Fast Tax, near downtown. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance Thursday in Washoe District Court.

Law officers said they found more than 700 international driving permits had been issued at a cost of $120 to each purchaser in the three months they'd been investigating the case.

An undercover agent for the Northern Nevada Auto Theft Task Force bought a Nevada ID card and an international driving permit without furnishing any information other than a name, the Nevada Division of Investigation said.

Alejandrez allegedly told investigators that he had obtained the fake ID cards from an Internet business located in New York, the division said in a statement. State officers were referring that information to the FBI for further investigation.

Authorities began investigating in October after a Reno justice of the peace, Judge Fidel Salcedo, questioned documents brought into his courtroom by local Latino residents who thought they were valid.

Nevada Highway Patrol troopers say they too are seeing increased use of the illegal documents presented as valid ID by drivers.

Scott Slobe, an investigator for the task force, said the fake IDs are a growing problem, particularly in the Latino community.

"We think this arrest represents only a small percentage of the thousands of dollars that are currently being bilked from honest people only trying to gain employment in Reno," he said.

The U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Service, Nevada Attorney General's office and task force officers are conducting follow-up investigations into suspected sale of additional fake IDs in Reno and Las Vegas.