BOISE – Three men from New York City and one from Chicago were sentenced this week in United States District Court for possession of fifteen or more counterfeit and unauthorized access devices, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. According to court documents, the men traveled to Boise with the intent to engage in fraudulent credit card transactions, believing they would not be caught here.

Abu Jalloh, 22, of New York City, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty to the charge on April 19, 2011.

Ibrahim A. Jalloh,, 25, of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty on April 7, 2011.

Mamodou Diallo, 22, of New York City, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty on April 11, 2011.

Mamodou L. Diallo, 25, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty on April 15, 2011. All defendants were ordered to pay joint and several restitution of $13,026.09.

According to the plea agreements, on September 30, 2010, the men were observed at a Boise Walmart making purchases with fraudulent and unauthorized credit cards, which are referred to as access devices under federal statute. After exiting the store, the men's two vehicles were stopped by Boise Police. During a subsequent interview, they admitted to jointly possessing numerous counterfeit and unauthorized access devices and using them to conduct fraudulent transactions in Idaho, mostly at Walmart stores. They also admitted using these access devices to purchase additional gift cards, numerous iPods, and other items, which they intended to sell after leaving Idaho. Some of the iPods were shipped to Guinea, Africa, where they were to be sold.

At the time of their arrest, the men were found in possession of approximately 61 counterfeit and unauthorized gift cards, each containing a magnetic strip encoded with a credit card account number inconsistent with the face of the gift card. The men were also in possession of 67 genuine but unauthorized Walmart gift cards, which were purchased with unauthorized credit card account numbers. They admitted to knowingly purchasing the 61 cards containing the counterfeit credit card numbers from the same man in New York City.

The men shared one hotel room in Boise. In their joint possession were several thumb drives, two laptop computers, fourteen iPod Touches, a magnetic strip reader/writer, a Garmin navigator, a mobile phone, 30 cartons of cigarettes, numerous gift cards, debit cards, and other access devices. As part of their plea, the men agreed to forfeit the items to the United States.

The case was investigated by U.S. Secret Service and the Boise Police Department.