Texas Pastor and Associate Selling Fake Immigration Documents
mySA.com
January 6, 2011
Guillermo Contreras

A San Antonio pastor and an associate have been indicted on charges that they sold numerous fake green cards and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants.

Felipe DeJesus Coronel Pacheco, 55, and Luis Angel Tovar Cisneros, 28, have been in custody since they were arrested last month by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Coronel, pastor of Ministerios Epicentro Donde Nace La Bendición in Austin, had moved from Austin to San Antonio in mid-2010, records show.

Trying to determine what kind of Church this man pastured we found this online: We are an Apostolic and Prophetic Ministry under the spiritual and ministerial cover of the Apostle and Prophet Ronny Chaves Monk and create firmly that our call was born before the creation of the world in the heart of our God Father, and who for sixteen years through the word of a prophet given to the Shepherd Victor, (This is a Pentecostal\Charismatic Denomination – Apostolic and Prophetic we read that this man has been declared as both an Apostle and a Prophet.)

He was to seek bond at a hearing Thursday, but it was canceled after a federal grand jury indicted him and Tovar on charges that include conspiracy to defraud the government and manufacturing counterfeit permanent-resident cards, commonly known as green cards.

Coronel also is charged with making a false statement to immigration officers by failing to disclose a conviction for cocaine possession on an application for naturalization in November 2009.

A criminal complaint affidavit said ICE and San Antonio police officers began investigating the pair after getting a tip that Tovar was selling fake immigration documents.

Over a five-month period, agents placed orders through Tovar for a fake green card and faux Social Security cards for $160 — and secretly watched him as he obtained them from Coronel, according to the affidavit.

On Dec. 16, officers converged at Tovar's apartment in the 100 block of Andrews and arrested the two as they made an exchange of documents.

Tovar and Coronel had several $20 bills that had been provided to Tovar by an undercover officer, the affidavit said. Agents also reported finding several fake documents.

Upon searching Coronel's home in the 500 block of Sumner, agents reported finding more documents, including fake green cards, laminating pouches, computers, printers and a laminator.

Tovar reportedly admitted he sold 25 counterfeit documents in 2010 alone.

Coronel, meanwhile, confessed that he made five to six sets of fake documents per week between 2006 and the end of 2007, and an additional 52 each in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to the affidavit.

“Coronel was transported to (the Sumner house), where he pointed out the exact computer, printer and laminator that he used to produce counterfeit documents,” the affidavit said.

Unaware that Coronel's hearing had been canceled, members of his congregation and supporters from San Antonio and Austin gathered Thursday in a circle outside the locked courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamely Mathy and prayed in Spanish for him. They declined comment.

A woman who answered an Austin phone number listed for Coronel's church said she had no information and declined comment.

Meantime, Tovar, who authorities say was in the country illegally, is being held without bond.