OUSIVILLE, KY – According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), federal officers have recently seized nearly 3,000 counterfeit driver’s licenses and more than 3,100 blank card stocks used to make fake licenses in Kentucky.

The IDs were traveling from China to various locations in New York, the federal agency said, adding that the fraudulent driver licenses were intercepted at an Express Consignment Operations center in Louisville, Ky. The licenses were for several states, including Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, and Ohio. The blank cards that were seized are used to create Fake IDs by other manufactures across the U.S.

Louisville authorities alerted CBP officers in Memphis as fake identification cards were also delivered to that state, leading to an additional 527 fake driver licenses in Tennessee, officials said.

According to CBP, one of the confiscated packages was heading to a convicted child rapist in the New York area, adding that authorities believe the person would entice minors with liquor and fake IDs before engaging in illegal activity. Homeland Security is also investigating.

Thomas Mahn, director of Louisville Port, said fake IDs are often obtained and sold via purchases on the “dark web.”. Fortunately, you do not actually have to access the Dark Web to purchase fake IDs. They are readily available from vendors across the world that accept payments via cryptocurrency.

“Some of the major concerns related to fraudulent identity documents are identity theft, worksite enforcement, critical infrastructure protection, fraud related to immigration-related crimes such as human smuggling and trafficking in human beings, and these documents can be used by those associated with terrorism to minimize screening of travel screening measures,” Mahn said.

This is just a small dent in what is the current Fake ID marketplace. Estimates have Fake ID transactions in 2018 over 12 million dollars in just the United States alone. In a report released by the Center for Alcohol Policy come interesting data as it relates to alcohol sales and service, fake IDs can have severe financial implications, the question is how much. U.S. alcohol-related economic costs exceed more than $175 billion annually.

Underage drinking costs nearly $57 billion annually, including $14.6 billion in lost labor costs, $5.4 billion in medical costs, and $36.9 billion in costs of pain and suffering. We do not know, however, exactly how much of those costs is caused directly or indirectly by the use of fake IDs by the access to alcohol by underage drinkers. We know that public sources, including federal, state and local governments, are responsible for many of the financial consequences.