Five Flordia Residents Sentenced For Committing Credit Card Fraud In Northern Kentucky

Three men and two women pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess Counterfeit and Unauthorized Access Devices in March 2018

COVINGTON, Ky. – Jose Valdes, Jairo Castro, Yanetsi Sanchez, Arnado Salazar and Dianey Quintero, all residents of Tampa, Fla., were sentenced yesterday, to a range of 37 months to 46 months in federal prison, by United States District Judge David L. Bunning, for committing credit card fraud.

According to their guilty pleas, the Defendants were responsible for mailing a package containing 227 blank credit cards from Tampa, to a Florence, Ky. motel, using a local shipping company.  Due to suspicious markings on the package, law enforcement began an investigation that ultimately led to a search of the package.  Law enforcement tracked the package to the motel, and found the Defendants waiting, in three vehicles located nearby.  A search of those vehicles resulted in the discovery of laptops and a thumb drive containing approximately 2,000 stolen account numbers.  Also located were skimmer devices (used at gas stations to record account numbers from unsuspecting customers using the pumps), equipment designed to download the stolen account numbers onto blank cards, and seven money orders that had been purchased with stolen account numbers.  The Defendants were arrested before they could unlawfully use the credit cards in the package.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Yvonne Dicristoforo, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service, jointly made the announcement.  The investigation was conducted by the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Police and the United States Secret Service.  The United States was represented by Assistant United States Attorney Laura Voorhees.