Thursday, May 12, 2005

Fake Agents On The Loose?

CNN reports that a man has been arrested after importing more than 1300 fake ID badges for such groups as NYPD, FBI, U.S. Marshals, Customs, Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Treasury. When the guy is question was arrested and his apartment in New York searched, agents also seized two NYPD police uniforms, two-way radios and six firearms, including a Glock 9 mm handgun, a Beretta semiautomatic rifle and a Winchester shotgun. There was also a used casing from a shoulder-fired missile.

Thankfully this man was caught and these items seized but this only happened because a customs agent checked the package which had originally been sent to the US from Taiwan. The badges were so realistic that nine out of ten would have passed close scrutiny.

When I read about this I'm always left to think- okay, they caught this package, but how many have slipped through? Maybe if he'd been buying a smaller lot- say twenty badges- customs agents wouldn't have searched the package. How many fake but realistic IDs are out there? How many more NYPD uniforms are in private apartments, waiting to be used for....what? Was this part of a terrorist plot? Again, my advice to one and all is be alert.

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