A Chelsea man, Wilberto Sandoval Mazariego, admitted to his involvement in a fraudulent document scheme, pleading guilty to selling counterfeit Social Security and Legal Permanent Resident cards, according to a recent announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office of Massachusetts.
Sandoval Mazariego, 40, entered his plea for the charge of unlawful transfer of a document or authentication feature before U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs, who scheduled his sentencing for October 3, 2024. The indictment follows an October 2023 federal grand jury action, which came after Sandoval Mazariego's arrest the same month. Investigations, which had initially targeted Tomas Xirum for similar offenses, revealed incriminating evidence including a string of text messages with nearly 568 attachments pointing to Sandoval Mazariego as the source of the fake IDs.
Part of the evidence collected included a transaction where Sandoval Mazariego sold a fraudulent Green Card, and a Social Security card to an undercover agent on August 17, 2023. Subsequent to his arrest, law enforcement officials seized materials from his Chelsea home used in the creation of the counterfeit identification, such as laminators, printers, and card stock paper, along with several completed fake IDs and $17,095 in cash.
Tomas Xirum, Sandoval Mazariego's alleged associate in the operation, pleaded guilty to his own set of charges in August 2023 and was later sentenced to 18 months in prison in January 2024. The crackdown on this identity fraud operation was spearheaded by the Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force of Homeland Security Investigations, which brought together expertise from various agencies to tackle the growing issue of document and identity fraud.
Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, shared details of the case and the collaborative inter-agency effort. Assistant U.S. Attorney David G. Tobin of the Major Crimes Unit is credited with prosecuting the case.
