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The long, oak table that anchors the center of the third-floor conference room in the Queens District Attorney’s office was littered Tuesday afternoon with driver’s licenses from various states, reams of blank Social Security cards, resident alien cards, printers, cell phones, laminating machines and other hardware you can pick up at any Staples store.

These were the fruits of a massive, bi-coastal inter-agency investigation of a fraudulent government identity operation whose Queens cells allegedly sold a host of fake documents on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights – considered by law enforcement officials as the epicenter of such activity on the East Coast.

Queens DA Richard Brown, joined by officials from various city, state and federal agencies, announced that 41 people have been indicted – 20 are in custody, 21 were still being sought – on charges of operating or participating in two criminal enterprises that took in more than $1.5 million a year by supplying fake government IDs, including resident alien cards, Social Security cards and driver’s licenses, to people across the country.

Among those indicted were Artemio and Julia Medel of California, a notorious husband and wife team that allegedly supplied blank templates of identification documents to individual cells. They are currently awaiting extradition to New York.

“This is perhaps the most important case we’ve seen in this area in a very long time,” Brown said of the two-year investigation. “I’m delighted to announce its successful conclusion.”

Acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton called the cooperation of the agencies involved – DA’s office, NYPD, State Police, State Dept. of Motor Vehicles, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Social Security Administration – “outstanding.”

“None of this would’ve been possible without the investigators on the ground doing the hard work,” Felton said.

Brown said the investigation began with the formation of an inter-agency taskforce in October 2005 after the DA’s Counter-Terrorism Unit received information culled by the NYPD’s Queens Gang Squad that fake government documents were being manufactured and sold on Roosevelt Avenue.

NYPD Deputy Inspector Robert Boyce reported that at least 12 of the 41 suspects indicted are gang members from popular Hispanic gangs M-18, Surenos 13 or Vatos Locos. Brown said most of the suspects are undocumented residents from Mexico.

According to the DA, street sellers deal directly with buyers and obtain photographs and personal information that are to be placed on the forged documents; runners pick up orders and deliver them to the mill where the documents are created; cutters produce the documents.

Social Security cards typically go for $40; a New York State driver’s license costs $50; and a Dept. of Homeland Security-Immigration and Customs Enforcement resident alien card costs $60.

“A lot of these documents are used to move through society in a false manner,” NYPD Deputy Inspector Robert Boyce said. “A lot of crimes can be committed from these documents.”

Boyce also said identity theft is most often the result of forged ID operations.

Brown hailed the resource-intensive case and called it “a breakthrough because we’ve been able to get the suppliers of the raw materials.”

When asked about the forged New York State driver’s licenses displayed on the conference room table and how this case may have an impact on Gov. Spitzer’s administrative policy change that will give all New Yorkers the opportunity to apply for state driver licenses without regard to immigration status, Brown stuck to the facts.

“As a prosecutor, I enforce the law,” he said, “I don’t make it.”

At their arraignment on Monday, 17 defendants were all remanded to custody without bail. They face felony charges of enterprise corruption, forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument, criminal possession of forgery devices and misdemeanor conspiracy.