More Trouble From the Feds

By Kevin Robinson in News on May 30, 2007 1:50PM

If you're a local pol these days, it seems that the feds are gonna get you one way or another. Sure, if you're a Lipinski, a Sorich, or hell, even a former or current governor, somebody from DC is probably taking a good hard look at you. But what if you are a photo shop owner, and your son is the alderman of the ward you live in? What if you are an alderman with a relatively clean record and a reputation for representing the community? Well, then the feds may nab you or a relative any way.

That's what happened late yesterday when Federal prosecutors on Tuesday added 62-year-old Elias Munoz the operator of Nuevo Foto Munoz, a photo studio in the Little Village Discount Mall to the fake-ID case in which 22 people were charged last month. Elias Munoz is the father or 22nd Ward alderman Ricardo Munoz. Making the situation even stickier for both the alderman and his father is the CBS2 investigation that was conducted nearly a year before the raids, where they went in and bought a fake ID! They even confronted the elder Munoz with what they had found, and it seems that he didn't take it to heart - allegedly letting the ring continue to use his shop to produce photos for even more fake IDs.

The thing is, you'd think that after CBS2 showed up with a camera and put you on TV, pretty much connecting you to the open secret that was the fake ID ring going on around you and your business, you'd lay low. We like Munoz here at Chicagoist - we think he does a good job representing his community, and serves Little Village honestly and well. But we're disappointed that he didn't use his power to at least push the Fake ID ring away from his dad's business, and then had a heart-to-heart with the old fellow. (Hasn't he learned anything in his years on the council?)