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The blank state drivers license cards sat stacked in two rows in the hotel room closet.

A few feet away was the Motor Vehicle Division computer and printer that could turn the blanks into official New Mexico licenses.

The operation, discovered by Albuquerque police in the Studio 6 Hotel on Osuna Boulevard Northeast in July, included security-sensitive items stolen from at least five MVD offices since 2004, according to state Taxation and Revenue Department records.

The list of stolen items reads like an identity-theft nightmare, says one Albuquerque private investigator looking into the theft of a client's identity:

About 1,300 blank ID forms.

A dozen rolls of hologram. laminate and another dozen rolls of colored printer ribbon.

Card printers.

Cameras.

A packet of vehicle registration forms.

81 blank title forms.

A handful of license plates.

"When I was conducting my initial investigation, I was shocked at the lax security the state has on this equipment and (drivers license) blanks," investigator Eric Griego said. "I would expect that this type of material would be locked in a secure safe or off-site during nonbusiness hours."

MVD Director Ken Ortiz said he's not concerned.

"Even though they broke in, even though they stole it, it's useless," Ortiz said.

Computers that can't connect to the division's network don't work and are shut down; vehicle titles have unique identifying numbers that, when reported stolen, won't be accepted by MVD computers.

Ortiz thinks criminals who steal equipment in hopes of making fraudulent licenses often abandon it once they realize it's useless without a MVD network connection.

He noted that the Secret Service in July found equipment - the federal agency wouldn't specify what kind - abandoned on the West Mesa that had been stolen from the Rapid MVD office on Coors Boulevard Northwest.

And even if computer-savvy criminals could create drivers licenses using stolen equipment, law enforcement officials would eventually catch on, because real licenses have magnetic swipe strips that must match information on password-protected computers, Ortiz said.

Checks and balances?

Griego says scam artists do misuse stolen equipment.

He's working on a case in which someone is using a valid drivers license number and name to write forged checks, get cell phones and credit. He said it appears the person put their name and photo on a drivers license with someone else's personal information. And he fears others could be doing the same thing.

He filed a public-records request with MVD to see how closely the state is keeping track of equipment that could be used to make real "fake" licenses.

Griego said he received the list of stolen items from MVD this summer.

After looking over the missing supplies, Griego said he's also concerned about auto theft. Blank titles could be used to transfer a stolen car to an unsuspecting buyer, he said.

But Ortiz emphasized that the MVD and its contract offices report all burglaries. Stolen title blanks, each of which has a unique identifying number, aren't accepted by the division's system.

Ortiz, who has headed the division since April 2005, couldn't recall any fraudulent titles being presented during his leadership.

A criminal with stolen registration cards still would need access to MVD's network to print the cards, he added.

The network is password protected, he said, and tracking software on the network shows who logged in when and what they did on the computer.

License to steal

The man arrested in the Studio 6 investigation, Anthony Hill, had been previously arrested in possession of a fraudulent license.

Hill, 37, of Rio Rancho was arrested on charges related to a stolen vehicle found in the hotel parking lot as officials confiscated the stolen goods, according to a Metro Court criminal complaint.

Six months earlier, Hill was arrested on charges he altered a state drivers license to show his face, height, weight and coloring along with another man's name, address and license number.

According to a Metro Court criminal complaint, Hill used the drivers license at a Wal-Mart to prove to a clerk he was the man named on a $650 check used to pay for about $200 worth of items.

Hill made away with about $400, which wasn't suspected as fraudulent because he had a drivers license that matched the name on the check, according to the complaint.

When Albuquerque police confronted the man whose name was on the check, the man told them his house had been burgled several months before and that his personal information was likely stolen then.

Hill was also charged with identity theft, fraud and forgery.

Albuquerque Police Sgt. Harold Prudencio said the Hill case was uncovered in an investigation into a ring of people targeting MVD offices, both private and state-run.

The ring appeared to be motivated by methamphetamine use and sales, he said.

But there is a concern that such thefts could be used for other illegal activities, including terrorism and underage drinking.

Looking for a match

State Police Criminal Investigations Capt. Mike Fenner said in 20 years, he has seen only three or four instances where someone stole another person's information and put it on a drivers license with their own photo.

Ortiz said law enforcement officials would know if someone presented a real-looking fake license because they can swipe the license to see if its information is in the state's database.

But the fake licenses could be useful, Ortiz said.

"If I were to have a genuine fake and I go into the MVD to renew it, they punch my old one, give me a new one, and then that new one has the magnetic strip," he said.

MVD does verify the license number and that the person presenting the license is the person in the license photo, Ortiz said.

But if the ID uses a real person's information, it might go through, said Jim Plagens, deputy director of the state's Special Investigations Division.

Plagens said the only way to catch this type of license is to compare photos on file with MVD.

His agency enforces alcohol regulations, including underage drinking - a potential source of demand for fraudulent licenses.

In the field, state and local police don't yet have access to the MVD's photo database.

Access to such a database would allow officers in the field to check if the person presenting a drivers license matched the photo of the person in the MVD system.

"We're aware of the stolen (MVD) items," Plagens said. "Most of the (fake) identification that we run across is something that has been made by a group of individuals who have the computer equipment and abilities to produce a fairly good fake."

Putting `everyone at risk'

Griego said the problem puts "everyone at risk since someone could use a valid drivers license number and personal information to pass as someone else."

"This alone could enable wanted criminals and terrorists to pass a roadblock or a traffic stop, also endangering law enforcement," he said.

One of Prudencio's detectives does monitor cases for terrorist threats.

Ortiz said steps are taken to protect all MVD offices through security systems, including alarms, controlled key access and locking drawers and cash registers. The state requires its private contractors to have security as well.

He said the division this year got a $540,000 appropriation for security. The money, however, can be spent only on security at state-owned buildings, so the division must seek a change in the appropriation's language next year.

Meanwhile, the MVD is focusing on closing internal security loopholes that recently allowed a contracted Tijeras MVD employee to issue at least 100 drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

The immigrants provided her with genuine but illegally obtained birth certificates, Social Security cards and other forms.

The investigation is ongoing.

At the same time, the state is auditing the documents used to issue licenses to immigrants. About 30,000 have been issued in the state since 2003, when Gov. Bill Richardson signed a law that allows New Mexico to accept a Mexican government-issued identification as one form of ID from immigrants.

The audit, ordered this spring, is pending but expected to be complete this fall.