HOUSTON — KHOU 11 News obtained never-before-seen bodycam video showing the dramatic arrest of an international crime ring believed to be responsible for sneaky ATM skimmers in the Houston area.
We also got exclusive access to the high-tech crime-fighting hub that tracked them down to protect your money.
The hub is in Tyler, a Texas city of 107,000 people with a small-town feel. A few blocks from its main drag, inside an old fire station, is the unusual home for the team that's hunting criminals worldwide.
"There is no other fusion center or intelligence center in the country or world that does what we do," Director Adam Colby told us.
It's the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center. The specialized unit led by Colby has only been around for two years. They track organized crime, credit card skimmers and other financial crimes.
"We're looking at criminals from all over the world," Colby said. "Criminals that have come to the United States to specifically commit crimes."
Those crimes are taking a toll on Texans.
"The amount of money they're actually stealing is staggering," Colby said.
Last year alone, the unit prevented the loss of or recovered more than $123 million.
"These guys are traveling all over the state and country committing these crimes and they're very hard to track," Colby explained.
And these aren't your everyday criminals.
"They have a clear-cut hierarchy. They call the person at the very top as the godfather," Colby said.
The FCIC helps law enforcement agencies connect the dots and find them before they empty your bank account. Captain Jeff Roberts says it's unlike any crime investigation you can imagine.
"It's an ultimate cat and mouse game," Roberts said.
Late last year, investigators got a major break in the case and the Pearland Police Department made one of the biggest busts yet.
But to understand what happened, we have to start at the beginning when four members of a Romanian crime family illegally crossed the Canadian border into Vermont and made their way to Houston.
"They also were working with other organized criminal groups," Colby told us.
They allegedly inserted skimmers into ATMs at more than half a dozen Walgreens stores. Pearland police gave us exclusive access to evidence like the pinhole camera they mounted on the ATMs to steal customers' PINs.
"It's extracting the information back and putting it on another piece of plastic so you can use it," Colby explained.
Law enforcement traced the suspects' car using Flock license plate reader cameras. The FCIC helped link it to a Pasadena dealership where the suspects bought it using a fake passport.
"The level of sophistication is about as high as you can get," Colby said.
What the suspects didn't know is that Pearland police were watching. They spotted them at Walgreens as they withdrew cash from an ATM. That's when Pearland police made their move making a pivotal traffic stop taking down Dimutru Catalin Licsor and Marius Constantin Tica.
In the car, PPD found $14,000 in cash and over 300 re-encoded gift cards with victim's stolen information.
"If you're talking monetary loss, it's a huge impact," said Roberts. "You're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars that are known."
Later that day, the Houston Police Department raided this Air BnB rental in Sunnyside. Inside the home, police found a sophisticated skimmer manufacturing facility. They arrested Alexandru Jean Marcu and Gabriel Jean Bulmaci.
"What's unheard of is to take down four people, find the location, catch them on site doing something else," Roberts told us. "It was a huge success for every agency involved and a direct result of the teamwork that's happening."
All four suspects are now locked up on a combined $44 million bond and could face up to life in prison if convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity. The FCIC says its role in helping dismantle this operation is proof that their work is paying off.
"We've managed to put quite a dent on this criminal organizations that are preying on Texans," said Colby. "We're just going to need more people to make it happen and push this out of Texas."
Director Colby says there are some easy things you can do to protect yourself from these types of crimes.
- Use tap to pay instead of swiping your card whenever possible.
- Use a credit card instead of a debit card.
- Be aware of your surroundings. Try to avoid using pumps that are out of the clerk’s line of sight.
- Check the pump for signs of tampering. Is the cabinet door loose? Is the card slot loose?
- If you see something out of the ordinary, tell the clerk and TDLR as soon as possible.
- To file a complaint about credit card skimming at a fuel pump, please visit: tdlr.texas.gov/skimmers.
If you are the victim of an internet-based financial crime you can file a case directly with the FBI at IC3, the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
If you are the victim of identity theft you can make a report to https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/. The site also contains victim resources for restoring and protecting your identity.
By reporting your crime, you could help the FCIC solve its next case.