Fairfax, VA Court records show it all started when Fairfax County Police pulled over several suspects for routine traffic violations involving improper display of a license plate and littering. Officers observed that none of the occupants had drivers licenses but did find what appeared to be counterfeit cards, receipts for iPhones and jewelry, as well as fake IDs in the names of Joge Soler and Luis Lopez. The Officers then contacted Master Police Officer Howard Mergler who recognized the suspects as having been involved with a February 2018 stolen cards report. MPO Mergler was able to recover credit card skimmers and card cloning equipment in a hotel room the suspects had occupied for several weeks. After scanning the cards into the ERAD system, he determined that 293 cards had either already been re-encoded with stolen card numbers or were in the process of being altered. He used the ERAD reporting module to identify the impacted financial institutions and document the concealment crime. https://wjla.com/news/crime/police-break-up-suspected-credit-card-fraud-ring-in-fairfax-county
Contact MPO Howard Mergler (howard.mergler@fairfaxcounty.gov) for additional information.