Scam, Like A Nesting Doll, Hid Even More

Cha and Lee told the officer that they were being threatened by a man named "Thunder," a reported enforcer for Cho. They were also looking for someone to kill Thunder, court records say. The undercover officer quickly offered to find a hit man and then introduced Cha and Lee to another undercover officer. A price was set: $2,500.

Cha and Lee pointed out Thunder to the "hit man." On Nov. 4, the phony hit man provided a phony photo of a Korean man lying in a pool of blood, court records show, and told them it was Thunder. Cha and Lee handed over an envelope with $1,000 cash with "Thank You" written on it. They were arrested, and both later pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Meanwhile, the cigarette business took off. Court records show that Cho would regularly meet the undercover officers with backpacks stuffed with $100 bills, in amounts ranging from $140,000 to $700,000. By summer 2008, Cho and his associates had bought $5 million worth of untaxed cigarettes in less than 18 months.

The agents would then drive rented box trucks stuffed with cartons of cigarettes to Queens, N.Y., where Chinese and Korean crews would monitor the neighborhood while others unloaded the trucks into warehouses, according to an affidavit written by ATF Special Agent Jeremy Witkowski.

As the investigation raked in the cash, Cho told the undercover agents that he could help them launder the money without having to report it to authorities. In 2008, the agents returned their cash to Cho in exchange for cashier's checks or personal checks, court records state.

The agents then met a friend of Cho's named Dong Young "Dereck" Shin, 47, who was in the business of selling Social Security cards, court records say. The cards were issued to Chinese nationals in the Mariana Islands to allow them to work, Ramsey said, but recipients were selling them, sometimes with passports of family information.

The Social Security cards were then used in the continental United States to obtain driver's licenses and credit cards. And then mortgages. Special Agent Ashan Benedict said people were able to establish good credit scores by making timely payments for months or years, all under false identities.

The investigation also uncovered a Department of Motor Vehicles employee in Illinois who was knowingly providing fake driver's licenses to people, often from Virginia. Those people would then trade the Illinois license for a legitimate Virginia license.

"Identity fraud really is a national security matter," Benedict said. "They're living here as a normal citizen. Is that the only thing they're going to do? Or are they a sleeper cell, are they up for criminal activity?"

The operation was broken up in a series of raids in July, including one on Shin's home at 5020 Backlick Rd. Investigators were stunned to discover "a mini-factory," as Benedict called it. They found shelves full of counterfeit sports clothes and crack pipes that police think were used to keep workers addicted and subservient.

All those arrested in the ring pleaded guilty to fraud counts. Cho was sentenced to 42 months, with the provision that he would be deported at the end of his prison term.

"We still don't have the trust of the community," Piper said. "It's going to take time." But police think they have made inroads. After the roundup in July, residents approached Fairfax officers and said, "Thank you, you got the right people."