4 charged with fraud; 1 also charged with drug offenses in Summit and Wasatch counties

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SALT LAKE CITY — Four men were arrested Wednesday in Summit and Wasatch counties, and charged Friday with 16 different felonies related to fraud and drug offenses, officials said Friday.

Rodrigo Alvarez-Arreola, 31, Francisco Javier Alvarez-Arreola, 35, and Juan Pablo Alvarez-Arreola, 28, were charged in Third District Court in Summit County with one count each of identity fraud in excess of $5,000, a second-degree felony, and two counts each of possessing forgery writing or a device to create forgery writing, a third degree felony, according to court records.

Pedro Carlon-Rangel, 40, was also charged Friday with one count of identity fraud in excess of $5,000, a second-degree felony; one count of forgery, a third degree felony; and five counts of drug possession with intent to distribute, a second-degree felony, court records show.

The four men are "undocumented and have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement," according to an emailed statement from the Utah Attorney General's office.

All the men allegedly used identification documents that were either fraudulent or did not belong to them, including Social Security cards and U.S. residency cards, to obtain employment, according to jail documents. They each used the information to get hired and earn more than $5,000 from various companies over the last four years, jail documents show.

Investigators served two search warrants Wednesday in which they seized a 17 fraudulent government documents, as well as methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to the statement from the attorney general's office.

"Those arrested were involved with identity theft, possessing fraudulent government documents and had a pattern of unlawful behavior with dealing several types of controlled substances," Utah Attorney General's Investigation Chief Leo Lucey said in the statement.

The arrests were carried out by the Attorney General’s SECURE Strikeforce, which investigates crimes involving people living in the United States illegally.

In addition to the alleged fraud, charging documents indicate Carlon-Rangel sold methamphetamine to an undercover law enforcement officer on multiple occasions. Officers later found a nearly 59-gram package of a substance that tested positively as methamphetamine in Carlon-Rangel’s car, court documents show.

The arrests followed a two-month investigation by the Reyes’s office, which included collaborations with Park City, Heber City, Ogden, Orem and Bountiful police departments; Summit County, Wasatch County and Davis County sheriff's offices; Back-Net Task Force, Utah Department of Public Safety, Homeland Security Investigations and ICE.