45°
On Aug. 25, a Bouton Street resident turned over to police a package that had been inadvertently delivered to a wrong address. When the concerned citizen opened the package, he discovered 24 driver's licenses secreted underneath packaging materials, police said.
An investigation was initiated and police confirmed that the licenses were falsified and that the scheme originated in Stamford.
Money and pictures were collected in the city and then wired to China, where the licenses were manufactured, police said. The fake licenses were mailed back to Stamford and distributed to underage youths, police said.
The driver's licenses seized were of high quality and even had the embedded holograms, Stamford Police said.
The 24 licenses seized were exact copies of ones from Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, and Pennsylvania. Several of the underage youths were from the Stamford area and others were from Massachusetts, police said.
Stamford Police notified the police and security departments at Norwalk Community College, University of Rhode Island, Cape Cod Community College and Eastern Nazarene College to be on the lookout for other possible fake IDs.
The license holders attend those schools, police said.
The investigation is ongoing, and police are applying for arrest warrants.
Each falsified license had a duplicate for the purpose of having a backup if one was seized, police said.
Police warn that if a youth is found in possession of a falsified license, they could be charged with second-degree forgery, which is a Class D felony.
Underage youth can use fake IDs to get into bars or buy alcohol illegally, but they also can be used for terrorism-related purposes or to gain fake citizenship in the United States, police said.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Stamford and receive free news updates.
