Three Cuban Nationals Plead Guilty to Conspiring to Steal Credit Card Numbers From Gas Pumps

Three Cuban nationals who had been residing in Texas before their arrest pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit access device fraud, U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced today. According to documents filed today in open court, all three defendants admitted that they agreed together and with others to obtain credit and debit card numbers that had been skimmed from gas pumps and use these numbers to make purchases.

YUSNIEL HERNANDEZ PEREZ (32), YADIER ALUIJAS FERNANDEZ (31), and HENRY DAVID MARTINEZ (23) admitted that they traveled to the Eastern District of Louisiana from Texas in July 2017. They traveled 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. A fourth defendant, ALAYN ALVAREZ CASTRO, was arrested in December 2017 in Miami, Florida and remains charged in this case.

Judge Feldman set sentencing for PEREZ, FERNANDEZ, and MARTINEZ for July 11, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. At sentencing, each 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 is in charge of the prosecution.