It is one of the most discreet types of crime, but also one of the most difficult to control. Document falsification is the order of the day and the objectives of those who commit it are very varied: from identity theft to committing fraud to driving without a valid official license. The latter represents more than half of the reports made last year by the Forensic Documentoscopy Service (Sedofor) of the Municipal Police. The fever of false licenses is the order of the day: out of the total number of documentary reports made by these agents, 335 in 2023, nearly 200 (197) concerned this matter. ABC spent a morning with these officials, who are located at the Corps’ renovated headquarters on Plomo Street (Arganzuela), where they have cutting-edge technology for their work; as is the case with a new version of the Docubox a few months ago, which for the layman is a large “microscope” capable of detecting counterfeits using a series of parameters, from ultraviolet light to infrared and other advances but visual, tactile expertise. and the hearing of each agent continues to be the main raw material of these officials. In the Sedofor laboratory, dependent on the judicial police station, agent Alberto gives us a map of a foreign country. “Touch it, don’t look at it,” he says, then hands us one that looks identical: “Do the same. Do you notice the difference? The touch is slightly different, since in one we appreciate more the relief of the letters than in the other. But Alberto does the final test He throws one of the cards on the table then the other: “Do you notice that they make a different sound Indeed. Standard associated news? No A man has been arrested for impersonating others for years in Valencia Toni Jiménez The arrested man was convicted in a trial under the profile of one of his victims and tried to confuse the Civil Guard with false documents after being discoveredHis expertise, that of the 15 investigators who make up Sedofor, is sufficient to realize the fraud but, for a court, empirical data is necessary And for that there is the Docubox, where these; scientific polices dissect, as if it were an autopsy, the authenticity of each one. We see the millimetric traces, the difference in colors, the invisible stamps, the tiny drawn patterns… More than a dozen details that are precious to the average citizen. The unlicensed crane operator. This is how in 2023 165 reports were made. for fake driving licenses and 32 others for international licenses. In addition, 39 different identity documents were issued; 27 calligraphic skills; 57 corresponding to the vehicle documentation, and 15 others of other types. This was crystallized in 314 technical reports; 53 experts; 43 on verification of possession of foreign driving licenses; 18 legal drafting bodies and 1,932 telephone consultations for document verification. In total, 2,359 interventions in just one year. The trend is increasing. Identification models for comparison with real ones IGNACIO GIL In the middle of the analysis, two members of the judicial traffic police station enter the room. “We bring an international driving license of a foreign citizen residing in Madrid. They stopped him at a checkpoint in Carabanchel and we suspect it is a fake, also from his country of origin. “We are taking it through the courts to find out its authenticity and, if illegality is confirmed, it will be subject to a speedy trial.” This is Sedofor’s daily life, in a process where the chain of control must be scrupulously respected. And the most notable cases are known. For example, less than a month ago, a collision occurred on the M-30, and when the driver of the insurance tow truck arrived, the traffic police officers told him also asked for his driving license: “It was a fake. In these cases, the permit must always be requested, because it is necessary to know who is removing this vehicle. Today, during the autumn-winter campaign, with the December and Christmas long weekend checks, such cases of document falsification will recur, as expected, most of these facts come from “of Latin Americans who come to live in Spain and have never done so.” I got the license,” explains David, one of the Sedofor police officers. “For them, the process of obtaining the license is long and they opt for the quickest route, that of obtaining a fake ID. identity. Especially the Venezuelans and the Colombians. [que hay entre otros países y España] was suspended years ago due to irregularities at the original locations [donde se adquirían de manera ilegal] and there are others that are sent by email, for example from Venezuela”, he adds, without any control. In Spain you have to go through a driving school and an exam, which does not is not obligatory. Complete library with specimens or models of official documents from different countries provided by the embassies of Ignacio Gil. But we can also find many French, Georgian, Ukrainian and Italian ones. people who want to hide that they do not have a driving license, and there are others who have a criminal record and directly fake another identity And other countries require that, to renew them, they. are returning there, like Colombia,” they add. For all this work it is essential to have smooth relations with the embassies, which occurs with the exception of nations which generally do not show cooperation in these or many other areas.madrid_dia_0703The second chapter in number of Sedofor interventions is made up of identity documents. Not only the DNI, but also the NIE, various identity cards and passports. For example, they work with counterfeit entry stamps in Schengen countries. If a passport has thirty pages, almost all of them can be authentic, but criminals falsify the main one, the biographical data. “What happens is that there are countries that have good security measures, like Germany, but there are cases where they are quite poor. And with false documents of this type, we can now generate other original ones, which is very sensitive, even more than what can happen with driving licenses, because there are criminals who commit fraud. [por ejemplo, bancarios o ciberestafas] and others who thus escape the action of justice”, declares agent David. This is what happened recently with one of the hitmen who assassinated the Colombian drug lord Leónidas Vargas at the 12 de Octubre hospital in Madrid on January 8, 2009, while he was recovering in a room He had worked with Pablo Escobar Well, Jonathan Montoya Rendón was sentenced to 24 years in prison. he who, for 300 euros, announced to the gang shooter that Vargas was admitted to room 543. He escaped from prison on leave last year and, after becoming one of the ten most wanted fugitives from Spain, he visited this month of July. He was carrying fake documents which were analyzed by Sedofor Invalid cards. Other tasks include the analysis of fake number plates, altered frames. , ITV and illegal car insurance… Once vehicles brought to our country from abroad arrive “in disguise”, they are very difficult to control”, especially if they are even registered. And what about parking cards for people with reduced mobility. “It’s a fairly particular practice: there are a lot of photocopies, use of authorizations from deceased people, changes to the expiration date by classifying the real one with a punch and putting the fake one in black ink. The problem is that these people do not have it considered as “a crime, but they falsify an official document”, explains one of the municipal police officers. They even have certificates of taking the Cervantes Institute exams to obtain nationality. Or even partners of a company who issued checks signed by colleagues, for very variable amounts. We still remember in Sedo the case of a guy who had up to 2,000 counterfeits in a checkbook “Country of origin: Narnia. Place of residence: Mordor » They are called fancy licenses: they are these false documents so crude that the judges themselves consider them not criminal because they are so incapable of deceiving anyone. Thus, it is normal to find maps downloaded from the Internet or even people with a passport issued in Narnia or residing in Mordor, to give a few surreal examples. This also happens often with disabled parking passes, a very popular scam. To compare good fakes, they have specimens: files classified by country with documents of all kinds provided by embassies, as up to date as possible, in order to compare them. The role of patrols who patrol the streets is fundamental, because. they are usually the first filter through which all this illegal documentation passes. It is for this reason that through Cifse, the security and emergency training center, experts like David and Alberto give courses to their colleagues so that they have better knowledge, in addition to those they follow, for example, as experts in documentoscopy.
