Gov. Pataki said yesterday a terror-related probe has resulted in the arrest of 225 people – many on the streets of the city – for producing thousands of fake identification papers.
Six Queens-based “fake-ID mills” also were shut down.
“We are committed to finding those who threaten us or intend to do harm before they strike,” Pataki said at a press conference, displaying a raft of phony driver’s licenses, passports and Social Security cards.
“All of it could have been – and may already have been – used in terrorism,” added Pataki, who was joined by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “This shows just how at risk we are.”
Pataki cited the case of Hassan G. Eldin, an Egyptian national who stayed illegally in the country after his visa expired by obtaining false identifications.
Particularly disturbing, Pataki said, was that Eldin maintained two identities and used different documents to get two separate pilot’s licenses. He is now facing charges.
“There’s no doubt in my mind he wasn’t doing that to become part of the American Dream,” Pataki scoffed.
The governor revealed that 140 of the 225 people who were arrested have already been convicted for their possession of “the tools of terrorism.”
John Scanlon, head of the state Office of Public Security, said many of the suspects were taken into custody on city streets.
“We are drying up their resources and will hit those who would terrorize our cities very hard by tearing the masks off their faces,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Federal, state and local investigators teamed up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for the crackdown, which should be a model for what has to happen across the nation, authorities said.
Pataki said the state Fraudulent Identification Task Force will continue its investigation.
The sheer vastness of the operations in Queens alone proves cops nationwide must be aggressive in rooting out false-ID traffickers, Pataki said.