3 college students arrested in Athens for making fake IDs

<p>Police have arrested three college students they say were running a major fake ID operation out of their apartment.</p><p>Authorities said they seized fake South Carolina and Georgia driver's licenses from the apartment, along with a fraudulent Texas ID card, computer equipment and other materials used to make fake IDs.</p><p>"It looks like they could be considered a major operation, supplying fake licenses and fake IDs," Athens-Clarke police Capt. Clarence Holeman said. "From everything that was collected, it gives the appearance they had the capability of producing a lot of different kinds of IDs from different states."</p><p>The apartment was shared by Adam Chris Hopper and Matthew James Barker, both 19, and Justin Mark Davis, 18. The three were arrested Monday and have been charged with second-degree forgery, a felony, police said. Barker and Davis each were also charged with five misdemeanor counts of manufacturing counterfeit identification.</p><p>Barker and Hopper are students at Gainesville State College's Watkinsville campus and Davis attends Athens Technical College, police said.</p><p>Police learned about the operation after a woman's son described it as she helped him move from the apartment complex, according to police.</p><p>The woman called the manager, who had a maintenance man go into the apartment on the pretense of replacing an air conditioner filter, police said. Once inside the apartment, the worker saw driver's licenses scattered on a living room table, along with a computer, a scanner and a box of plastic ID holders, police said.</p><p>The manager then called police.</p><p>All three students have been released on bond from the Clarke County Jail.</p><p>The arrests are not related to an ongoing investigation University of Georgia police started last month after getting a tip that a student was shipping fake ID cards to students at other schools, UGA police Lt. Lisa Boone said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cda4b4)</p>