LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the third time in less than two weeks, U.S. Customs and Border Protection have seized thousands of counterfeit driver's licenses shipped from overseas.
CBP officers on Wednesday morning discovered 4,422 counterfeit state driver's licenses inside two separate inbound shipments from Hong Kong at Louisville's Port of Entry, according to a press release.
On Oct. 24, CBP officers seized 2,265 counterfeits and seized another 1,094 fake driver’s licenses on Oct. 12.
In total, officers have seized 7,789 fake IDs within 14 days, according to the agency.
The shipment reportedly contained driver’s licenses for several states including California, Ohio, Georgia, Connecticut, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan. All the driver’s licenses seized on Wednesday were concealed inside the shipment manifested as postcards to avoid detection.
Most of the fake IDs were for college-age students, authorities said.
“That’s a lot of counterfeit driver’s licenses and the reason is not always so college age kids, who are under 21, can consume alcohol, but also be utilized for fraudulent activities,” Thomas Mahn, Port Director-Louisville, said. “Many of these licenses can and would be used to defraud government benefit programs, commit credit fraud by using a false identity, or carry out consumer fraud, which can damage the economy and cost the American people.”
LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, director of Field Operations-Chicago Field Office, said counterfeit IDs are often linked to terrorists, human trafficking and other illegal and dangerous activities.
“Our officers are trained to identify many different kinds of fake or illegally modified documents, and they work 24/7 to stop them from coming into the country,” Sutton-Burke said.
Andrew Weil contributed to this report.
