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St. Joe's Prep alum busted with 42 fake IDs

A young man from Philadelphia who attends Columbia University has been charged in New York with possessing 42 fake IDs.

A young man from Philadelphia who attends Columbia University has been charged in New York with possessing 42 fake IDs.

Anthony Johnson Jr., 19, a St. Joseph's Prep graduate who plays football at Columbia, was arrested last week after being seen on March 22 holding a package addressed to him that contained fake driver's licenses, a New York County Criminal Court complaint said. He's been charged with 42 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.

"I ordered the IDs online because there's a lot of places around school where you need to be 21," Johnson said, according to the complaint. "The IDs were $65 each. I charged my friends $2 on top of the $65."

The fake driver's licenses came in a package from the China-based company ID Chief, the school's student newspaper reported.

A Daily News cover story earlier this month found that ID Chief's realistic Pennsylvania and New Jersey IDs have been causing problems here for bar owners, police officers and government agencies. The IDs are difficult to detect as fake because they are equipped with the hologram and ultraviolet images that bar employees check when inspecting licenses.