A Nicaraguan man, Armando Morales Obando, 63, has been extradited to the United States to face charges related to a scheme to manufacture and sell counterfeit U.S. passports in South Florida.
Details of the Scheme
According to prosecutors, Morales Obando conspired with others to manufacture and sell the counterfeit passports between January and June of 2020. He allegedly negotiated the sale of five fraudulent passports, coordinated the collection of $5,500 in payments, and arranged for the passports to be shipped from Nicaragua to Broward County.
The passports contained information of real people but had photographs of other people, prosecutors said. Morales Obando is also accused of conspiring with others to create $20,000 in counterfeit U.S. currency before exchanging it for $6,000 in real U.S. currency.
Morales Obando faces multiple charges, including conspiracy, passport fraud, identity theft, and uttering counterfeit currency. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the counterfeit currency count, up to 10 years in prison on each passport fraud count, up to five years in prison on each conspiracy count, and a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence on each aggravated identity theft count.
Original reporting: NBC6 Miami — read the source article.
