ARLINGTON, Va.,USA Sep. 8, 2006 -- Authorities arrested 19 people - mostly Ghanaians - Thursday after uncovering a scheme that arranged as many as 1,000 phony marriages in northern Virginia between U.S. citizens seeking cash and illegal immigrants seeking green cards.

Many of those who were married never met until they showed up at the courthouse to apply for their marriage license, said U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg.

"We don't normally take an opinion on matters of the heart, but it's safe to say in this case that we do not believe in love at first sight," Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg said the early morning arrests capped a three-year undercover investigation that tracked nine persons who arranged marriages between citizens and 10 illegal aliens from Ghana who sought permanent residency and avoiding deportation. Authorities did not charge all of those involved because some acted as informants in the case, affidavit papers show. In all, 22 people were charged, and 19 have so far been arrested, authorities said.

Among those charged were "facilitators" who brokered the marriages for fees ranging from $2,500 to $6,000, illegal immigrants who wanted a marriage as a way to obtain permanent residency, and U.S. citizens who received initial payments of $500 plus monthly installments totaling up to $3,600 for participating, authorities said.

Authorities say most of the people involved in the scheme were from Ghana and were seeking permanent U.S. residency. Rosenberg says it is likely people went to Virginia because there is no waiting period to get married.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Gregory Cichetti said in an affidavit that the loosely affiliated enterprise resulted in at least 500 phony marriages, going back as far as 2002, but the number was more likely about 1,000.

The crackdown was named "Operation Arlington Marriage Fraud" and is considered the largest of its kind in the region.

The investigation started with a tip from an unidentified Arlington County Courthouse clerk who noticed a "suspicious" pattern of what appeared to be "hastily arranged marriages" between couples behaved like strangers when they applied for their marriage licenses, officials said.

The potential spouses came from Maryland, Virginia and the District. The majority of the phony marriage licenses were obtained at the Arlington Courthouse, but others were obtained in Alexandria, Fairfax and Manassas, officials said.

"It was a pattern of folks appearing in this office [who] didn't seem to know each other, or the same arranger kept appearing," Mr. Rosenberg said. The investigation found "some of the newlyweds literally met on the day of their marriage."

The investigation also uncovered U.S. citizens recruiting others to meet with Ghanaian-born illegal alien facilitators who then matched them with other Ghanaian illegals, affidavit papers show.

For $2,500 to $6,000, the facilitators would find the illegals a spouse and coach them through the immigration process.

In their investigation, authorities said, they found that the facilitators coached couples on the questions customs agents might ask to verify the marriage's legitimacy, such as what side of the bed each slept on. The facilitators would also help immigrants obtain bank records and utility bills to convince customs agents of a bona fide marriage.

For example, Lillian Jackline, one of the illegal alien facilitators named in the case, helped a "couple" concoct photographs, utility bills, bank accounts and other evidence of their life together, an affidavit shows.

Immigration agents posing as friends and relatives of that couple said Mrs. Jackline also helped the spouses memorize such details as how they met and on which side of the bed they slept to successfully complete Citizenship and Immigration Services' marriage interviews.

The charges include immigration fraud and marriage fraud, punishable by 10 years and 5 years in prison, respectively. Additional charges are likely, Rosenberg said.