5 Men Arrested Over Fake Driver's Licenses

A former Department of Motor Vehicles employee who worked in the Santa Monica office for six years was among five men arrested Wednesday for allegedly producing fake driver's licenses. The arrests were part of a search operation launched by the DMV and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Carlos Ku, 28, was arrested at his home in Los Angeles. He is charged with illegally making and distributing driver's licenses to people who didn't pass the driver's test and "did not legitimately possess legal presence documentation," according to a release from the LAPD.

Ku is also accused of allegedly working with someone who would sell driver's licenses to customers willing to pay for tests. The DMV said Ku accessed the department database and "entered fraudulent information to circumvent legal presence and testing requirements."

Arrested along with Ku was 31-year-old Bellflower resident Alejandro Rubalcava, who used to work out of the DMV office in Hawthorne. He was also arrested at his home and faces the same charges.

A second operation pertaining to the eight-month investigation was also launched Wednesday. It resulted in the arrest of 26-year-old Peter Scott Singer of Monrovia; Todd Terrazas, 24, of West Hollywood; and Lawrence Benjamin Goldstein, 22, of Los Angeles. All three face felony charges of forging government identity documents and the falsification of state seals, according to the DMV and the LAPD. Each man is also being held on $100,000 bail and can face up to three years in state prison.

In those arrests, investigators acquired included computer equipment, printers and other evidence of what authorities are calling a "counterfeit operation millhouse."

“The practice of using fake IDs is constantly evolving and getting more sophisticated," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in a statement. "From a homeland-security perspective, this is a threat to not only public safety, but national security. The illegal operation we shut down was putting dangerous drivers on the road and endangering the public."

This article was originally published on Pacific Palisades Patch.