MAN GETS 7-YEAR SENTENCE FOR MANUFACTURE AND SALE OF COUNTERFEIT GOVERNMENT ID CARDS

(FREEHOLD) A man who admitted he manufactured and sold counterfeit identification cards from his Ocean Township apartment will spend seven years in state prison, announced Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Lucio Medina-Sanchez, 37, was sentenced to seven years in a New Jersey state prison by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Richard W. English, J.S.C., after pleading guilty in January to one count of manufacturing false government identification and two counts of selling false government identification, all second degree charges.

Medina-Sanchez was arrested as part of a joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Directorate and the Ocean Township Police Department, after he created and sold of counterfeit U.S. Permanent Resident Cards (green cards) and Social Security Cards to an undercover officer.

The investigation revealed Medina-Sanchez was manufacturing cards, including Social Security Cards and U.S. Permanent Resident Cards, in his Ocean Township apartment. Medina-Sanchez required his customers to provide him with a passport-sized photograph; a name and a birth date of their choosing before creating the fraudulent documents in exchange for payment.

The investigation culminated on the morning of February 2, 2012, when investigators from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics and Criminal Enterprise Unit, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Ocean Township Police Department, executed a search warrant on Medina-Sanchez’s apartment where they recovered computers, laminates, and other materials used by him to create the false documents.

Acting Prosecutor Gramiccioni would like to thank the Ocean Township Police Department and the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations for their cooperative effort in the investigation.

The case was handled by Special Deputy Attorney General and Acting Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Alexander, of the Office’s Narcotics and Criminal Enterprise Unit. Medina-Sanchez is represented by Elizabeth Persinger-Martin, Esq., of Freehold.