Local News

MIDDLETOWN — An "admitted illegal alien from Mexico" was arrested Wednesday for producing a half-dozen fake identification, Social Security and permanent residency cards and selling them to undercover police officers, the Butler County Sheriff's Office said Thursday.

Abel Gaston Gudino-Arenas, 33, of Middletown, was charged with six counts of forgery — a fifth-degree felony — and no operator's license — a misdemeanor — for manufacturing fake documents, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. Deputies said the man admitted to manufacturing the cards for more than three months.

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Abel Gudino-ArenasClick to enlarge

Gudino-Arenas was arrested after he allegedly delivered a fake ID to undercover officers for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed of Pakistan, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to the news release, officers asked Gudino-Arenas to produce the ID for Mohammed "in an attempt to see how far (he) was willing to go."

Deputies also found marked money on him and in his car, the release stated.

Gudino-Arenas is being held in Butler County Jail on a holder from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faces possible deportation, said Butler County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Monte Mayer.

Prior to his arrest, undercover officers had purchased two Kentucky ID cards, two Social Security cards and two permanent resident cards, the release stated.

A search of his house by deputies and Middletown police turned up more than 330 blank identification cards, $540, three cell phones, two laptop computers, two printers, a scanner, a laminating machine and paper used for making Social Security cards, the release stated.