A man was sentenced Monday to six months behind bars for making counterfeit identification documents, including the tightly regulated cards required to access secure areas of the Port of Los Angeles, at a fake ID “mill” run out of a Huntington Park storefront.
Alejandro Gabriel “El Grande” Rivera, a 34-year-old undocumented Mexican national, is expected to be deported following his prison term, federal prosecutors said.
Rivera was arrested in June for his role in the document mill — run out of a storefront called Pacific Mill — that produced green cards, Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and Transportation Worker Identification Credentials — TWICs — which enable unrestricted access to secure facilities within the ports and waterways of Los Angeles.
“Control of these cards is very important for the security of the ports that surround Los Angeles,” said Matt Margelot, resident agent in charge with U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service in Los Angeles. “It’s essential that we keep those without proper TWIC cards from accessing restricted zones.”
The investigation was part of an ongoing undercover operation led by the Coast Guard — known as operation “Buzzkill” — in which five “document mills” have so far been dismantled and 13 defendants have been charged, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
