Argentina judges convict six in Pocito fake DNI scheme

A federal court in San Juan sentenced six people for participating in a scheme that used biometric data to obtain fraudulent national identity documents at the Registro Civil in Pocito. Judge Daniel Doffo of the Federal Oral Tribunal found Dayana Belén José, Dayana Sol Castro Cajal, Flavia de las Mercedes Vargas, Lucas Alfonso González, Analía Edith Rosales and Carlos Fabián Prato guilty of attempted ideological falsity. The defendants supplied photographs, fingerprints and facial‑recognition data to create false DNI cards that could be used to secure loans and purchase goods in the names of unsuspecting victims. Sentences ranged from one year and eight months of conditional imprisonment to two years and two months of suspended terms; Prato received a year and ten months of effective prison, to be served together with a separate drug‑trafficking conviction. The court noted that security alerts from the National Registry of Persons (RENAPER) had blocked the issuance of the counterfeit IDs. Earlier phases of the investigation had already convicted the alleged gang leader Rolando Javier Navarro Saide and former registry official Natalia Castillo for abusing their positions to facilitate the fraud.