TYLER — Cuban nationals, Jorge Rondon Martinez and Leidy Labrada De La Guardia, were arrested in Mexico for their involvement in a large scale gas skimming fraud scheme that was mostly occurring in Texas.
According to TPD, they investigated several fraud cases involving gas skimmers.
When investigators followed up on those cases, they found out that a large network of the suspects were from Cuba living in the Houston area.
The suspects went to Tyler and surrounding areas to place gas skimmers and get credit card information for access to bank accounts.
Since there were so many of these skimmers spreading across the area, local investigators joined the North Texas Financial Crimes Task Force to address the issue.
Martinez and De La Guardia were considered to be key figures in the skimming operation and left the country from Houston to avoid being arrested for Engaging in Organized Crime, Unlawful Interception, Use or Disclosure of Wire, Oral or Electronic Communications by TPD.
With the help of U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Secret Service with the Mexican Federal Police, both fugitives were found by Mexican Federal Police in Cancun.
They were found to be illegally running a restaurant.
Both were arrested by Mexican authorities while TPD Investigators met at the Attorney General's Office in Austin about the problem in Texas.
Authorities returned Martinez and De La Guardia taken back to the U.S., and TPD Investigators took them into custody on Friday in Houston.
Their bond has been set at $2,250,000 for each of them.
A release from TPD included this statement:
"As authorities continue to crack down on subjects that are involved in these crimes, there has been a decrease of skimmers found in the greater Tyler and Smith County area. This is thanks to the hard work of law enforcement and gas station owners taking proactive security measures. "
