Police in McAllen, Texas have arrested two people in connection to the massive Target credit card breach last December. Mary Carmen Garcia, 28 and Daniel Guardiola Dominguez tried to cross into the United States early Monday morning. According to police Chief Victor Rodriguez the couple were traveling from Reynosa, Mexico to the US border. Police received information regarding the couple’s activities and were able to obtain arrest warrants for the pair. During the arrest the police discovered a significant amount of fraudulent credit cards in their possession.
Garcia and Dominguez were able to make purchases in excess of $20,000 using the account information of South Texas citizens. The couple made these purchases at major national retailers such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Toys R Us. The pair made sure that they only shopped on Sundays to avoid banks quickly detecting the fraud purchases.
Local police had been working with the US Secret Service after many stores in the area were being hit with fraudulent purchases. The authorities then began to comb through thousands of hours of video footage looking for the perpetrators. Eventually they found were able to identify a car with Mexican plates and the arrested couple at the Anzalduas International Bridge border crossing.
Law enforcement officials stated that the two are part of a much wider conspiracy perhaps linked to Eastern Europe or Russia. At this time only state and local charges have been filed but federal charges should come shortly. Indications are that the Target data has already been sold multiple times and the stolen information sold to cyber criminals. Authorities in South Texas have had experience with major credit card fraud crimes in the past. In fact the police in the area have seized encoding machines and credit card plastic blanks.
