November 4, 1998

SOPHISTICATED COUNTERFEIT DRIVERS LICENSE LAB RAIDED; COMPUTERIZED EQUIPMENT SEIZED; TWO ARRESTED

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the arrest of two men in connection with an undercover investigation conducted by his office, the United States Secret Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service into forged New York, New Jersey and Florida drivers licenses. At the time of the arrests investigators seized hundreds of blank drivers licenses, social security cards and alien registration cards or green cards from a basement laboratory in one of the defendants homes.

District Attorney Brown said, "This investigation is part of our ongoing effort to crack down on fraudulent credit card and identity schemes. According to the allegations, during the course of this investigation 5 counterfeit licenses were purchased from a defendant who identified himself as Paul Desir, 35, of 113-12 204th Street for several hundred dollars each. After the last purchase on Monday, detectives and Secret Service Agents followed Desir to a house at 218-63 110th Avenue where they had reason to believe the licenses were being produced. Inside the house detectives discovered a sophisticated forgery laboratory in the basement containing two computers, thousands of blank white plastic cards of the type used by New York, New Jersey and Florida in the issuance of drivers licenses, a vial of mercury which is used to make holograms on the cards, a color copier, a laminating machine and photographic equipment, among other items, all of which were seized. In addition, detectives found and seized almost $70,000 in cash as well as computer records allegedly containing evidence that the owner of the house who gave his name as Desir Laurent, 36, was also engaged in counterfeiting checks."

District Attorney Brown added, "The operation appears to have been fairly sophisticated and quite lucrative. On a work table in the basement, for example, a picture of one as yet unidentified male appearing on 10 phony driver licenses under 10 different names was discovered. In our experience this is the kind of identification that is frequently used by scam artists to open bank accounts or to illegally obtain credit."

The defendants are both charged with forgery and criminal possession of forged instruments. If convicted they face up to seven years in prison.

The investigation was carried out by Lt. Lawrence Festa and Dets. Glen McKechnie and Les Frank of District Attorney Brown's Detective Bureau which is under the supervision of Chief Edward J. Brady; NYPD Det. Dwight Cunningham and Special Agent Greg McAleer of the U.S. Secret Service under the supervision of Special Agent in Charge Chip Smith and NYPD Deputy Inspector Robert Martin, Commanding Officer of the Special Investigation Division; Postal Inspector Michael Pena of the U.S. Postal Inspections Service under Supervising Inspector Leonard Kennedy; and Investigator Gerard Harrison of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles Division of Field Investigations.

Assistant District Attorney Diane Peress of the District Attorney's Economic Crimes Bureau which is under the supervision of ADA Michael J. Mansfield and overall supervision of EADA Robert D. Alexander is in charge of the case.

It should be noted that an arrest is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.