BOSTON – A five-year federal prison sentence was handed down today to Luis Angel Naranjo Rodriguez, 32, of Hialeah, Florida, for masterminding a brazen scheme to pilfer thousands of debit and credit card numbers from unsuspecting drivers across New England. Rodriguez wasn’t after gas money; he was after everything in your account.
Rodriguez, sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns, will spend five years behind bars followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to cough up $21,267 in restitution to the victims whose lives he upended. The feds caught up with Rodriguez after a January 18th guilty plea to a laundry list of charges: eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of possessing 15 or more counterfeit access devices, and one count of possessing the tools to create them.
Between April and November 2019, Rodriguez repeatedly traveled from Florida to Massachusetts, laying a network of undetectable card skimming devices inside gas pumps. These weren’t some amateur operations either. The devices were sophisticated enough to text Rodriguez’s mobile phone with stolen account information the moment a customer swiped their card. Investigators traced the signals to at least 11 gas stations spanning Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut – Lynnfield, Concord, Malden, Taunton, Randolph, Raynham, Portland, Nashua, and Willington all hit by this crew.
The sheer volume of stolen data is staggering. Rodriguez’s phone logged at least 4,878 text messages containing stolen debit and credit card numbers, many of which included PINs. He didn’t just want the numbers, he wanted the cash. Rodriguez cloned the stolen information onto gift and prepaid cards, using them to make ATM withdrawals, purchase expensive goods for resale, and pocket cash back on transactions. Security footage at a Framingham gas station and CVS on November 16th, 2019, captured Rodriguez in the act, draining victims’ accounts with four cloned cards.
The jig was up that same night. Rodriguez was apprehended at a Concord Rotary Gulf gas station while actively tampering with a fuel pump after closing hours. A search of his vehicle revealed the four cloned cards, fuel pump keys, black latex gloves, four additional skimming devices, and the phone brimming with stolen data. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment crime; it was a calculated, widespread attack on everyday consumers.
U.S. Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Andrew Murphy, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Boston Field Office, announced the sentencing. The Concord, Lunenburg, and Raynham Police Departments in Massachusetts, along with the Nashua (N.H.) and Portland (Maine) Police Departments provided crucial assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred M. Wyshak, III, of Rollins’ Organized Crime & Gang Unit, successfully prosecuted the case, ensuring Rodriguez will pay for preying on innocent drivers.
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Key Facts
- Agency: U.S. Secret Service
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Press Release
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