Four Albuquerque Residents Charged with Federal Conspiracy and Bank Fraud Charges Arising Out of Mail Theft Scheme

ALBUQUERQUE – Acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney and Inspector in Charge Keith Fixel of the Phoenix Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPS) announced the arraignment this morning of four Albuquerque, N.M., residents in federal court on an indictment alleging conspiracy and bank fraud charges.  The charges arise out of an alleged scheme to steal mail from USPS collection boxes at U.S. Post Offices in the Albuquerque area in July and Aug. 2017.

The four defendants, Jorge R. Cabrera, 19, Hector Lau, 21, Yarelys Marquez, 19, and Fernando Cairo-Rosell, 29, are charged with conspiracy and nine counts of bank fraud in a ten-count indictment, which was filed on Sept. 21, 2017.  All four defendants entered not guilty pleas to the indictment during the arraignment hearings.

U.S. Postal Inspectors arrested the four defendants on Aug. 30, 2017, based on criminal complaints charging them with theft of mail and bank fraud charges.  The criminal complaint alleged that in July and Aug. 2017, mail collection boxes at USPS stations in Albuquerque repeatedly were broken into and mail was stolen.  The U.S. Postal Inspection Service initiated an investigation into the scheme after receiving complaints that checks deposited in the mail collection boxes had been stolen, altered and deposited into accounts allegedly held by the defendants. 

According to the indictment, the four defendants participated in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud that began in July 2017 and continued until Aug. 2017, and operated in Bernalillo County, N.M.  The indictment also charges the four defendants with committing bank fraud against four credit unions that maintain branches in Albuquerque.  The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to commit bank fraud by stealing checks that had been deposited in U.S. mail depositories, altering the checks, and attempting to pass the checks off as legitimate to banking institutions.  The indictment alleges that as part of their bank fraud scheme, the defendants deposited checks, which had been altered to make them payable to members of their conspiracy and in amounts ranging from $500 to $4,754, into bank accounts held by members of the conspiracy. 

If convicted, the defendants each face a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison on the conspiracy charge and 30 years in prison on the bank fraud charges.  Charges in criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent unless found guilty in a court of law. 

This case was investigated by the Albuquerque offices of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaheen P. Torgoley.