GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The ringleader of a group of criminals that installed card-skimming devices in gas pumps, in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Lansing to steal credit card numbers has been sentenced to Federal Prison.
45-year-old Guillermo Rodriguez will serve 6-1/2 years for wire fraud, identity theft and conspiracy.
Ten others involved in the criminal enterprise which operated in Michigan and Florida have already been convicted and sentenced to prison.
They would take the stolen data, make cloned credit cards and use them to buy Meijer gift cards to make thefts more difficult to trace.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge says, “this is the second gas-pump skimmer scheme my office has prosecuted over the last few years.” He added, “The first involved … seven convictions and a prison sentence of over 12 years for its leader, Antonio Dejesus Perez-Martinez.”
This second investigation and series of prosecutions should send a second strong message to any group that might contemplate coming into West Michigan to carry out this scheme that we are ready, willing, and able to federally prosecute every member of that group.
If a criminal is bound and determined to commit gas-pump identity theft, West Michigan is definitely not the place they want to try it.”
