Gangbangers openly sell fake IDs, green cards to migrants on NYC streets

 Criminals with ties to MS-13 and other gangs are selling fake green cards and social security cards to migrants on street corners in Queens — a dangerous security threat as rogue newcomers pour into the Big Apple.

This week The Post spotted at least 10 men camped out in broad daylight at four different corners along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, hawking the bogus documents for $80 to $250.

The forged social security numbers can be used to open up a bank account and potentially obtain a real driver’s license.

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Criminals with ties to MS-13 and other gangs are selling fake green cards on street corners in Queens.

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The Post spotted 10 men camped out along Roosevelt Avenue hawking fake IDs for anywhere between $80 and $250.J.C. Rice

Permanent resident cards, also known as green cards, give immigrants the lawful right to live and work in the United States.

Many migrants buy the forgeries to land jobs where employers do not look too carefully at documentation.

But others can have much darker intentions.

Armed with such ID, a person could “load up a truck with bombs … and bring it underneath the Holland Tunnel and create something major and disastrous,” warned Bruce Foucart, a former special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in New England.

“For someone that wants to do terrorist activity or is a national security threat, it’s easy to establish this second life within the US,” said Foucart.

“I guarantee right now, we’re just waiting for another 9/11.”

On Wednesday, along Roosevelt between 82nd and 103rd Streets, stretching from Jackson Heights to Elmhurst and Corona, The Post observed:

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A fake document seller offered to have the forged IDs ready in an hour, according to reports.

• Five hooded men gathered outside the La Gata Golosa bakery, whispering “social, social” to passersby and chatting up Spanish-speaking clients near a massage parlor. One offered a Post reporter pristine permanent residency and social security cards for $80. “They work,” the shady salesman assured, showing an example of the forged documents on his phone. “I need your name, your whole name, your age . . . I can take your picture.”
• Some of the group’s members darted from the corner into an 82nd Street stairwell, below the Madelyn Salon, customers in tow. The cash handoffs and document pick-ups take place behind a glass door, according to one observer.
•  Another fake ID peddler, sitting in a chair outside of an insurance office between 102nd and 103rd Streets, offered a fake green card for $180 and a social security card for $70. He said “many” people purchase the fakes, but declined to specify how many he sold.
• One black-market seller brought a reporter into a stairwell beneath a barber shop, where he asked the scribe to enter his name, age and country of origin into a phone. The salesmen initially asked for $200 for a green card and social security card, but the price was negotiated down to $80. The Post didn’t buy the cards.
• Another fake document peddler was captured on video sitting on a chair on the sidewalk under the elevated train tracks, according to footage posted by the Instagram account Zombiesinnyc.

The Roosevelt Avenue sellers are affiliated with the 18th Street gang, and with the ruthless MS-13, a high-ranking police source said.

Both gangs originated in Los Angeles and are rivals known for violence and drug dealing — but also selling fake IDs.

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Security experts warned migrants with criminal intentions could use fake social and green cards to carry out devastating attacks.

“It’s big business,” the source said.

The transnational criminal organizations running the mills also may have helped smuggle in migrants, creating “a one-stop shop” for undocumented newcomers, Foucart noted.

Roosevelt Avenue has long been known to investigators as the “East Coast epicenter” for fake IDs.

The area has also been a hotbed of prostitution, with The Post recently exposing the open-air “Market of Sweethearts,” as it is known in popular YouTube videos.

Area residents and workers are outraged by the fake ID mills in their midst.

“If they’re doing social security number and nobody says s–t, next time it’ll be weapons and passports,” said Zee Omar, 24, a clerk at Candy Grocery Food Corp. on Roosevelt Avenue.

“Everyone can do what they want now.” 

The influx of nearly 180,000 migrants to the city since the spring of 2022 has created a higher demand for the cards.

“People from other boroughs are coming specifically to this area to get the IDs, all the new migrants are coming here,” one local said.

Roy Fenoff, an associate professor at the Department of Criminal Justice at the Citadel, South Carolina, said the fake documents give migrants access to a slew of services otherwise impossible without government identification.  

“Once people have these fake cards, they can work, they can travel, they can access a lot of aspects and services in the United States,” he said. “There are people getting these cards that are not here just to get a job, that they have other intentions, and this helps them carry out criminal activity.”

The social security cards are fake, but the numbers are real, so U.S. citizens can be affected, he said.

“If I’m using a social security number that’s of another person, and then I’m committing crimes, and I’m using [their] name, you potentially have warrants out there for innocent people’s arrest, because you don’t really know who this person was,” he said, citing a case he handled of a Denver woman whose ID was stolen. 

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The influx of nearly 180,000 migrants to the city since spring 2022 has created a higher demand for the cards.

Rogue migrants can also use the fake documents to avoid developing a criminal record under their real name, according to law enforcement experts.

“If they’ve never been fingerprinted before, under their fake name they can get arrested five, six, seven, eight times . . . and they themselves would never have a record,” said John Cutter, retired NYPD deputy chief of the Intelligence Division.

“With fake IDs, they become [a] ghost, so they become more emboldened and more willing to break the law and potentially do something that’s really serious,” he continued.

Illegal immigrant Diego Ibarra, the brother of Jose Ibarra, who is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley at the University of Georgia, is in federal custody in a case involving alleged possession of a fake green card, which he used to get work at the school.

Diego has been linked to a brutal Venezuelan gang.

In New York, the charge for making fake ID is “criminal possession of a forged instrument” — a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The NYPD said it is looking into all potential lawbreaking on the strip.

“The NYPD will continue to address conditions . . . on Roosevelt Avenue,” an NYPD spokesperson said.

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Area residents and workers are outraged by the fake ID mills in their midsts.J.C. Rice

It’s impossible to say how many of these fake cards are in circulation or the value for the black market of forged documents, although Cutter estimated there are likely tens of thousands of fake green and social security cards in use in New York City

But the production and sale of the forged documents is increasing in New York City amid the spike in migrants, Fenoff noted.  

“As opportunities for the fraud increase, and the demand increases, then the market always follows,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/09/us-news/gangbangers-openly-selling-phony-green-cards-on-nyc-streets/

UK NHS App updates ‘will tap into smart device data’

The UK government plans to link the NHS App to data generated by smart devices, including step counts and heart rate, for example, according to Health Secretary Victoria Atkins.

She told The Times in an interview that a new version of the app would be able to harness that data to “provide personalised advice, screening, and treatment that stops people developing major diseases.”

Her remarks followed a presentation at the Nuffield Trust, in which she said the NHS App will become “the front door for prevention, as well as for cure,” highlighting a number of forthcoming changes, including improvements to its capabilities in confirming and modifying appointments and booking procedures like vaccinations and tests.

That will “increase choice [and] reduce the number of missed appointments by half a million every year,” said Atkins, who also said a new NHS staffing app is on the way that will be used to make it easier to roster electronically and to end the use of “expensive off-framework agencies.”

In Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring budget announcement this week, the government set aside £3.4 billion for technology investments in the NHS, which will go towards a range of initiatives, including updating IT systems, digitising operating theatres, upgrading MRI scanners, improving the use of electronic patient records, and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce “form filling by doctors and nurses.”

The allocation is tied to a productivity pledge by the NHS, which, by the summer, will start reporting against new productivity metrics, not only at the national level, but also across integrated care boards and trusts.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said after the budget that investment in capital to fund new technology means the NHS can commit to deliver 2% annual productivity growth in the final two years of the next parliament, which would “unlock tens of billions of savings.”

The NHS App and new telemedicine services are in line for £430 million of new investment, Atkins told The Times.

“If you think of the data that we have on our phones, healthcare is absolutely going to be there, encouraging people to find out what is a healthy lifestyle for them. How can they help quit smoking, talking therapies on the NHS App […] These are all things that are going to be helping us in future,” she said.

https://pharmaphorum.com/news/nhs-app-updates-will-tap-smart-device-data

'My daughter's father died in accident, but he was not on birth certificate. How can I prove paternity'

 I have an 8-year-old daughter with an ex-boyfriend.

He recently passed away in a horrible accident. He wasn't on her birth certificate, but he helped pay for school things, and bought her anything she said she wanted.

He has an adult daughter from a previous relationship. His family doesn't know my daughter exists. He had a strained relationship with his family and, perhaps for that reason, he did not tell them.

Can I apply for survivor benefits on her behalf? I know by doing that I'll have to talk to his family, and likely allow them to visit my daughter if they're interested in doing so.

I don't want his life-insurance money - if he didn't leave any to our daughter - but survivor benefits would help pay for school things that he usually helped with.

The Mother

Dear Mother,

Once upon a time in America, children who were born outside of marriage were denied inheritance under the law. But those laws were effectively overturned in 1968 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Levy v. Louisiana. However, the laws still differ by state.

It would be wise to hire an estate lawyer to help you in this process. The statute of limitations varies by state after probate has been settled, so time is not your side. It's a stressful process, and you could risk putting it off indefinitely if you don't get the ball in motion today.

The term "survivor benefit" usually refers to a spouse who can claim 100% of their spouse's Social Security, assuming it's a higher amount, after their death. Your daughter, as an heir, may be entitled to certain benefits and a share of an inheritance, assuming you can prove paternity.

"Within a family, a child can receive up to half of the parent's full retirement or disability benefits. If a child receives survivors benefits, they can get up to 75% of the deceased parent's basic Social Security benefit," according to this detailed guide from the Social Security Administration.

If your daughter does not have a disability, your SSA survivor benefits will stop when they turn 16, the SSA says. If your daughter has a qualifying disability, however, your benefits can continue if you exercise parental control and responsibility for your child.

There are, of course, scenarios where your daughter may be excluded - if he left a will, specifically excluding your child. But even if he died intestate - without a will - or even if he left a will and never mentioned your child, you could certainly have a claim on his estate.

For instance, in California: "The court will not accept private genetic testing as evidence in a paternity case unless the test has been ordered by the court. If the court orders genetic testing, it will provide the named parents with the information they need to get the tests done."

DNA testing

In New York, a child born outside of marriage is considered the "legitimate child" of the mother. But you must once again at least provide testamentary evidence to show that he was the father of your daughter. It could include witness testimony and payments for the child's education.

Paternity in New York must be established "by clear and convincing evidence, which may include, but is not limited to: (i) evidence derived from a genetic marker test, or (ii) evidence that the father openly and notoriously acknowledged the child as his own."

Your case is obviously more complicated due to the tragic circumstances, and could also require DNA testing; in this case, you may have to enlist the help of a close relative of your daughter's father - a parent or sibling or child. This will likely come as a shock to his family.

You would likely need to bring a civil lawsuit to prove paternity. It's more difficult after the parent has died, and the burden of proof would lie with you. In the absence of his name on the birth certificate, records of his payments to your child would be one important example of formal evidence.

In Texas, for instance, the court may order genetic testing from a close relative - including parents, siblings or children - if the court considers the circumstances to be just and, as in your case, the parent in question is not available for testing.

"A court may not render an order under this section unless the court finds that the need for genetic testing outweighs the legitimate interests of the individual sought to be tested," according to this statute related to establishing paternity in that state.

People react differently, and his family's grief may influence how they respond. His adult daughter could, for instance, be happy for you to prove your daughter is her half sibling, and may see your child as a gift from heaven, as you must do every day.

Perhaps the strained relationship he had with his family can be turned into something entirely different. It may be your daughter ends up with an older sister, in addition to other benefits that she may be entitled to.

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20240309310/my-daughters-father-died-in-a-horrible-accident-but-he-was-not-on-the-birth-certificate-how-can-i-prove-paternity-to-claim-her-inheritance

Smedley Butler Explains The Latest Excuse For American Intervention In Ukraine

 by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

Senior Fellow Alex Pollock drew my attention to an important quotation by Smedley Butler: 

1935 speech and later a book by Major General Smedley D. Butler (USMC), includes  “… A racket is best described, I believe, something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make large fortunes...

If we put them to work making poison gas and more and more fiendish mechanical and explosive instruments of destructions, they will have no time for the constructive job of building a greater prosperity for all peoples. By putting them to this useful job, we can all make more money out of peace than we can out of war – even the munition makers.

So … I say, TO HELL WITH WAR.”

It is notable that very little has changed over the past century in terms of how regimes rationalize war. It was during the First World War that the term "merchants of death" first gained widespread use, and it was also during that war that the American regime also spoke often in terms of munitions spending as a benefit of war. It was all part of a war-propaganda machine dreamed up with Woodrow Wilson's cadre. 

Unfortunately, the propaganda still works with many. It was just two weeks ago, in fact, that the Biden Administration began explicitly trying to sell US military aid to Ukraine as a scheme to "create jobs" in the United States. The administration's statement on the war spending is virtually identical to something out of a US propaganda mill in 1950 or 1918. We would only need to change a few of the names and places. According to Biden's handlers: 

“While this bill dispatches military hardware to Ukraine,” Biden mentioned on Tuesday, “it actually finances manufacturing within the United States in states like Arizona, where Patriot missiles are manufactured; Alabama, the home of Javelin missiles; and also Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas, which are hubs for the production of artillery shells.”

There are a multitude of problems with this statement.

For one, it completely ignores the moral questions of forcing American taxpayers to pay for Kiev to send more young men into a meat grinder that is part of a conflict it is clear Ukraine will lose.

Secondly, these weapons are not accounted for and are not audited. We don't even know where they really end up.

Third, US involvement in the war risks involving the US in an escalating conflict that has absolutely no strategic value for normal Americans. For normal taxpayers, this is all risk and no benefit. Escalation could lead to American deaths while "victory" in Ukraine doesn't benefit Americans at all since Ukrainian sovereignty has never contributed anything at all to American taxpayers. 

Finally, there is the fact that war spending simply is not "good for the economy." This is an old well-worn myth, but is based on nothing. Consider the process: war spending (especially spending on weapons) requires taxing productive Americans and then turning their taxpayer money into devices that will be consumed in war. Had the taxpayers been allowed to spend this money, much of that money would have been spent on things like education, capital goods, saving, and investment. Instead, that money is taxed, and then, after the bureaucrats take their cut, it is transformed into artillery shells, etc. that blow up some stuff in Ukraine for no benefit to Americans.

To imagine that this is a boon for Americans requires the most out-of-touch beltway type of thinking imaginable. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/smedley-butler-explains-latest-excuse-american-intervention-ukraine

Honduran ex-prez convicted of aiding drug traffickers, using military to enable cocaine to enter US

 Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted Friday in New York of charges that he conspired with drug traffickers and used his military and national police force to enable tons of cocaine to make it unhindered into the United States.

The jury returned its verdict at a federal court after a two week trial, which has been closely followed in his home country.

Hernández, 55, served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people.

He was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, three months after leaving office in 2022 and was extradited to the U.S. in April of that year.

U.S. prosecutors accused Hernández of working with drug traffickers as long ago as 2004, saying he took millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and then to the country’s highest office.

Hernández acknowledged in trial testimony that drug money was paid to virtually all political parties in Honduras, but he denied accepting bribes himself.

He noted that he had visited the White House and met U.S. presidents as he cast himself as a champion in the war on drugs who worked with the U.S. to curb the flow of drugs to the U.S.

In one instance, he said, he was warned by the FBI that a drug cartel wanted to assassinate him.

He said his accusers fabricated their claims about him in bids for leniency for their crimes.

The jury returned its verdict at a federal court after a two week trial, which has been closely followed in his home country.AFP via Getty Images

“They all have motivation to lie, and they are professional liars,” Hernández said.

But the prosecution mocked Hernández for seemingly claiming to be the only honest politician in Honduras.

During closing arguments Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig told the jury that a corrupt Hernández “paved a cocaine superhighway to the United States.”

Prosecutors accused Hernández of working with drug traffickers as long ago as 2004, saying he took millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and then to the country’s highest office.AFP via Getty Images

Defense attorney Renato Stabile said his client “has been wrongfully charged” as he urged an acquittal.

Trial witnesses included traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders and said Hernández was an enthusiastic protector of some of the world’s most powerful cocaine dealers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life prison term in the U.S.

Hernández, wearing a suit throughout the trial, was mostly dispassionate as he testified through an interpreter, repeatedly saying “no sir” as he was asked if he ever paid bribes or promised to protect traffickers from extradition to the U.S.

His brother Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran congressman, was sentenced to life in 2021 in Manhattan federal court for his own conviction on drug charges.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/08/world-news/former-president-of-honduras-convicted-in-us-of-aiding-drug-traffickers/

Adams admin offers NYC religious groups up to $54K a month to house migrants

 Mayor Eric Adams’ administration issued a plea to faith leaders this week, asking them to open their doors to some of the thousands of migrants currently in the city’s care, The Post has learned.

The administration sent out a letter to religious groups across the Big Apple asking for volunteers to provide daytime respite centers for 150 migrants, in exchange for up to $54,000 a month.

It also asked if religious centers would be willing to house 19 other migrants at night, for up to $35,500, according to the letter obtained by The Post.

The first such shelter opened in Queens this week at the Rabbinical Seminary of America Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, which will provide beds and daily meals to 15 single adults, City Hall confirmed.

Eric Adams’ administration has reached out to religious centers in New York City to pitch in on the migrant crisis.Aristide Economopoulos

The administration hopes the move will help ease the burden of housing the nearly 65,000 migrants currently in city care — with the crisis expected to cost around $10 billion through the next fiscal year.

City Hall argues the faith-based shelter system will come in much cheaper than its current emergency contracts. The average nightly cost of housing migrants came in at $383 last summer, with single adults and families scattered across the city in hotels, shelters and tent cities.

The goal is to have religious institutions provide 50 overnight shelters and five daytime centers for migrants in the coming weeks, an Adams spokesperson confirmed.

“Our response has not only required a whole-of-government effort but also included collaboration with nonprofits, community organizations, volunteers, and the faith community,” City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamalek said when asked about the initiative.

“As Mayor Adams has said, it is not enough to be parishioners, we must also be practitioners, and congregations that participate in our faith bed program are doing just that.”

The city is willing to shell out up to $54,000 a month for religious centers to open their doors to migrants between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily, to cover janitors, shelter coordinators, security background checks for workers and laundry and other services.

Houses of worship that house migrants overnight from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. can be reimbursed up to $35,500 a month or $65 per person a night for similar operating costs.

Centers will be required to have showers (six single stalls for daytime care and at least two stalls for overnight care) or the ability to add as well as space to prepare meals and for migrants to eat.

Daytime centers will get $5 per person for lunches and snacks while overnight shelters will get just over $6.50 for dinner and breakfast, $3.27 per meal.

The city is currently caring for just over 64,000 asylum seekers.Helayne Seidman

In comparison, the city’s controversial no-bid contract with DocGo, a provider of mobile health services, was paying out $11 per meal, many of which were just getting thrown out with migrants saying the food was horrible.

Adams set a goal last month of shaving off another 10% to migrant housing costs, on top of a previous 20% reduction City Hall has already achieved.

The Maspeth faith-based shelter, though, is already receiving blowback more local Councilman Bob Holden, who called the move “completely unacceptable.”

“It’s an absolute disgrace that our city wastes millions on people who shouldn’t be here while our veterans and citizens are left homeless and forgotten,” the Queens Democrat railed.

“City Hall for years ignored a faith-based approach to housing our own, but have no problem rolling out the red carpet for migrants,” he added. “What a travesty.”

https://nypost.com/2024/03/08/us-news/adams-admin-looks-to-faith-centers-to-house-migrants/