Police in St. Petersburg say they have apprehended a group of Russian men who are accused of fabricating and selling phony identification documents from a nonexistent Caribbean island state.
Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said on March 7 that the group was producing fake passports and driving licenses and selling them to undocumented foreign workers.
They were issued in the name of an imaginary country called "Kingdom of the Free Island of ASPI."
Volk said the group was selling the documents for prices ranging between 15,000 and 100,000 rubles -- or about $26 to $1,760.
Police detained a 64-year man who is accused of being the group's ringleader, saying he pretended to be the fake country's consul.
Two men, aged 35 and 44 were accused of finding "clients" to buy the documents and another 44-year old man was accused of producing the fake documents.
All four have been charged with fraud.
