By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A wide-receiver on Columbia University's football squad admitted to buying 42 fake IDs so his friends could drink in bars, prosecutors said.
"I ordered the IDs online because there's a lot of places around school where you need to be twenty-one," the Columbia junior, Anthony Johnson, allegedly told police.
The 19-year-old Philadelphia native, who was arraigned March 23, said the fake documents were $65 apiece, and he planned to sell them with a $2 mark-up, according to the complaint.
He was caught receiving the shipment on March 22.
"I was instructed to send a Western Union moneygram to China," he explained of his payment arrangements with the fake IDs manufacturer.
Johnson was charged with 42 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument and released without bail. He is due back in court June 2.
A Columbia University spokesperson would not comment on the case or Johnson's status as a student.
The football team's website lists Johnson as a liberal arts student who wears number 22.
The public defender who represented Johnson at his arraignment could not be reached for comment.