Cuban National Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Steal Credit Card Numbers from Gas Pumps

A Cuban national who had been residing in Miami, Florida pleaded guilty yesterday, to conspiracy to commit access device fraud, U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced today. ALAYN ALVAREZ CASTRO, age 29, was arrested in December 2017 in Miami, Florida and later ordered detained pending trial in New Orleans. As part of his guilty plea today, CASTRO admitted that he agreed with others to obtain credit and debit card numbers that had been skimmed from gas pumps.

According to the factual basis filed in the case, CASTRO directed others to the location of skimmers installed in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas. YUSNIEL HERNANDEZ PEREZ, age 32, YADIER ALUIJAS FERNANDEZ, age 31, and HENRY DAVID MARTINEZ, age 23, have previously pleaded guilty in this case. These defendants, who are awaiting sentencing, admitted that they traveled to the Eastern District of Louisiana from Texas in July 2017. They then went to locations in Louisiana where skimmers had been previously installed, returned to Texas, and then came back to Louisiana with counterfeit access devices, which they used to make purchases as a local merchant. For his part, CASTRO further admitted that he flew to Phoenix Arizona as part of the conspiracy and sent the addresses of Houston, Texas-area gas stations to a coconspirator.

Judge Feldman set sentencing for CASTRO for November 14, 2018. At sentencing, he faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison, along with monetary penalties, supervised release, and mandatory restitution.

U.S. Attorney Evans commended special agents of the United States Secret Service, as well as Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Deputies, who investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hayden Brockett, who is prosecuting this case.