Two University of Wisconsin students were arrested Saturday afternoon and charged with manufacturing fake IDs.

According to UW Police Sergeant Johnnie Diamante, an informant alerted police to the illegal activity Friday, leading to the arrests of 22-year-old UW student Tuan Hoang Quoc Nguyen for the manufacture of false identification, the obstruction of an officer and the possession of drug paraphernalia; and 19-year-old UW student Robert P. Zemple IV for party to a crime — false identification-card violation. Police also arrested Tuan?s brother Bao Hoang Quoc Nguyen, a 25-year-old with no UW affiliation, for charges of manufacturing false identification and obstructing an officer.

Tuan and Bao Nguyen are still in custody.

If convicted of manufacturing fake IDs, each could face up to two years in prison. The charge of obstructing an officer carries a possible sentence of nine months in prison.

Police followed up on an anonymous tip through several contacts, who cooperated with police to arrest the suspects, Diamante said.

He said the students have been manufacturing IDs since the beginning of the fall semester.

?They made at least 30-40 false IDs, and that?s a conservative estimate,? Diamante said. ?It?s probably significantly higher, but we haven?t compiled all the evidence yet.?

Through a search warrant for Tuan Nguyen?s home on West Wilson Street, police seized multiple computers, digital cameras, a lamination device and multiple false identification cards.

Diamante said no arrests for the manufacture of fake IDs have been made for the last two or three months.

A UW freshman who has purchased an ID from Tuan said the Minnesota ID has worked well for her even though it does not scan. She said the students never seemed paranoid about getting caught for manufacturing the IDs.

Another UW student and friend of senior Tuan Nguyen said the men made Minnesota IDs with actual photos of the customers that worked well on campus. She said the IDs did not work as well in Minnesota, however, because Minnesota bouncers were more familiar with the state?s IDs and they noticed the IDs? print was faked and the material of the IDs was not legitimate.

The convicted students might have been the most widely used ID manufacturers at UW-Madison, charging around $100 for an ID, she said.

?They were the biggest one on campus,? she said. ?Anyone I talked to said they had gotten their IDs from them.?

She said she has known Tuan Nguyen for a year and said he recently switched his major from chemical engineering to a more artistic major.

?He was a funny, down-to-earth kinda guy,? she said.

She said she had not heard from him yet but hoped he would be okay.

?He?s a really good guy, he just took the wrong profession,? she said. ?I hope everything works out well for them.?

Diamante said the Nguyen brothers faced charges of obstructing an officer because they provided the police with false information about their identities and also gave the police false information regarding another individual. He said the possession of drug paraphernalia charge stems from two objects that were confiscated from them during the search of the apartment.