The Justice Department announced it has charged 50 people with conspiracy in a scheme to acquire personal identification information on US citizens in Puerto Rico and then sell it through fraudulent documents.

Typically, the documents consisted of forged Social Security cards and birth certificates. They were sold for prices ranging between $700 and $2,500.

The documents were sold from April 2009 until December 2011 to buyers throughout the United States.

"The alleged conspiracy stretched across the United States and Puerto Rico, using suppliers, identity brokers and mail and money runners to fill and deliver orders for the personal identifying information and government-issued identity documents of Puerto Rican US citizens," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a statement.

The accused conspirators lived in 15 states and in Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth in the Caribbean. They face possible penalties of 15 years in prison and $250,000 fines.

The indictment alleges that identity brokers ordered the forged documents for their customers from Puerto Rican suppliers by making coded telephone calls. They would refer to "shirts," "uniforms" or "clothes" as codes for various kinds of identity documents.

"Skirts" meant female customers and "pants" meant male customers who needed documents in various "sizes," which referred to the ages of the identities sought by the customers.

Payment was made through money transfers while the documents were sent by mail.

Some of the persons receiving the forged documents used them to obtain drivers licenses, US passports and visas, the Justice Department reported. Others are accused of using the documents to commit financial fraud.

The suspects were arrested Wednesday as part of Operation Island Express, a law enforcement operation that joined efforts of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Postal Inspection Service, the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service and the Internal Revenue Service.