A multi-agency raid in La Mirada, Whittier, La Habra and other cities Tuesday morning led to the arrest of 12 suspects tied to a fraud ring that used credit card information stolen from customers at local restaurants to create counterfeit cards.

Authorities are still looking for one suspect.

Tuesday’s 6 a.m. raids were in seven cities: Norwalk, Whittier, La Mirada, Hesperia, Bellflower, La Habra and Huntington Beach, Eimiller said.

Many of the 13 suspects have ties to gangs based in La Mirada and Norwalk. Federal officials said the scheme affected more than 500 credit cards and caused banks to lose more than $500,000.

Russell Jay Ogden, also known as ‘Big Dog,’43, of La Mirada was named in a U.S. Department of Justice indictment released May 23, 2017 detailing a credit-card skimming and theft ring he led for two years that lifted credit card numbers from restaurant customers. The FBI said Ogden was on the run the day agent raided his home. (Courtesy photo by FBI)

Lloyd Luis Leyh, 43, of Huntington Beach was a member of a credit-card skimming ring revealed following an FBI raid of a La Mirada home on May 23, 2017. An FBI official said Leyh remained on the run following the raid. (Courtesy photo by FBI)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

The FBI along with other agencies serve a search warrant at a home in on the 13800-block of Mansa Dr. in La Mirada on Tuesday May 23, 2017. Several locations in neighboring cities resulted in the arrest of 12 suspects. (Photo by Keith Durflinger/Whittier Daily News/SCNG)

The FBI along with other agencies serve a search warrant at a home in on the 13800-block of Mansa Dr. in La Mirada on Tuesday May 23, 2017. Several locations in neighboring cities resulted in the arrest of 12 suspects. (Photo by Keith Durflinger/Whittier Daily News/SCNG)

The FBI along with other agencies serve a search warrant at a home in on the 13800-block of Mansa Dr. in La Mirada on Tuesday May 23, 2017. Several locations in neighboring cities resulted in the arrest of 12 suspects. (Photo by Keith Durflinger/Whittier Daily News/SCNG)



The FBI along with other agencies serve a search warrant at a home in on the 13800-block of Mansa Dr. in La Mirada on Tuesday May 23, 2017. Several locations in neighboring cities resulted in the arrest of 12 suspects. (Photo by Keith Durflinger/Whittier Daily News/SCNG)

The FBI along with other agencies serve a search warrant at a home in on the 13800-block of Mansa Dr. in La Mirada on Tuesday May 23, 2017. Several locations in neighboring cities resulted in the arrest of 12 suspects. (Photo by Keith Durflinger/Whittier Daily News/SCNG)

From Oct. 25, 2013 to July 2, 2015, authorities alleged that members of the ring hit stores in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties making purchases, including designer handbags, jewelry, video game consoles, expensive headphones, an air conditioner and even a crossbow.

The suspects would resell the goods, return them to the store for credit to use later or keep it for themselves, according to a federal indictment filed April 18 outlining the scheme.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said many of the cards were skimmed at a restaurant in Huntington Beach. He said an employee at the restaurant used a credit card skimming device to steal information from customers. Authorities and the indictment didn’t name the restaurant.

The employee sold the devices with the stolen information to the ring, which investigators said was led by 43-year-old Russell Jay Ogden and his wife, 41-year-old Shelly Anne Ogden. Mrozek said Russell Ogden, who goes by the moniker, “Big Dog,” is linked to street gangs known as the La Mirada Punks and the Carmelas.

RAID IN LA MIRADA

The FBI, California Highway Patrol and Huntington Beach police arrived at Ogden’s neighborhood in the 13800 block of Mansa Drive on Tuesday morning and served a search warrant at his house. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said a SWAT team used a flash bang device, which some neighbors thought were gunshots.

“No shots were fired,” she said.

Eimiller said Ogden’s wife was not arrested at the house, but at another nearby location. Ogden eluded capture but was later arrested Tuesday afternoon.

A 27-year-old man who lives four doors down from Ogden said he spoke to the man just an hour before the FBI showed up at the home.

“He’s a good guy,” the neighbor said. “If what they say he did is true, they’re not going to find anything there because he’s too smart.”

The neighborhood, after all the agents and media left, was rocked again when a flash bang device went off at about 12:30 p.m.

“That sounded just like the one this morning,” another neighbor said.

1 REMAINS A FUGITIVE

Investigators served search warrants at multiple locations on Tuesday, Eimiller said.

Mrozek said 12 of the 13 suspects named in the indictment are in custody. Lloyd Luis Leyh, 43, of Huntington Beach, remains a fugitive. All were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Lloyd Luis Leyh, 43, of Huntington Beach, remains a fugitive. All were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Most were also charged in other counts of fraud transactions using credit cards and aggravated identity theft.

Rudy Leo Aguilar, aka “Fats” and “Dreamer,” 32, of Norwalk, was also named in an indictment that charges him with distributing about two pounds of methamphetamine.

Gustavo Uribe Meza, aka “Big Boy” and “Goose,” 24, of Whittier; and Peter Chiapparine, also known as “Uncle Pete,” 72, of South Gate, were charged in a narcotics-trafficking case involving methamphetamines.

Aguilar’s brother, 35-year-old Norman Aguilar Jr. of Norwalk, was indicted for allegedly trafficking nearly 3.6 kilograms of methamphetamine and for federal firearms violations.

Mrozek said 11 of the suspects appeared in a Los Angeles federal court Tuesday afternoon and entered not guilty pleas. They were ordered to stand trial July 18.

HOW IT WORKED

The investigation has been ongoing for more than two years and started when local authorities received calls about identity theft involving credit cards, according to Eimiller. She said federal agencies were later brought into the investigation.

According to the indictment, Ogden and Blaine Andrew Porlas, 51, of La Habra, met with the person who skimmed the credit cards in Huntington Beach, who gave them a portable skimmer loaded with the stolen information.

The information was used to load cards with magnetic strips such as gift cards. The re-encoded cards were embossed with the suspects’ names.

The group used the cards at Chevron gas stations, Home Depot, Toys R Us, the Apple store, Samy’s Camera store, Nordstrom and other businesses. Two of the suspects liked Nordstrom.

During a Dec. 16, 2014, phone call, Ogden told one member to be careful where he used an American Express card because he could ruin it, according to the indictment. The member responded with “Nordstroms is cool.”

Ogden replied, “Nordstroms is gravy baby.”

In another call four days later, Ogden mentioned two members were both in Dick’s Sporting Goods Store buying items and doing well. He bragged that he had not “made money like this in f—–g forever.”

The defendants were also contacted by people who ordered specific items, like an XBox One and a GoPro camera, according to the indictments.

On Jan. 17, 2015, Ogden and Leo Norman Aguilar talked about Ogden, Rudy Aguilar and Ameer Adnan Yousef getting arrested outside Jack’s Surfboards with 19 cards. Ogden said none of the cards had been used, according to the indictment.

The next day, Ogden told the restaurant employee about the arrest and was concerned the cards could be traced to the employee. He warned the skimmer source to “be on your toes.”

Eimiller said the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Secret Service and police departments in Los Angeles, Brea, La Habra and Huntington Beach were involved in the investigation.

Each defendant is charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years, as well as other charges, Eimiller said. Three people are also charged with distributing or trafficking meth.

An indictment unsealed Tuesday, filed in a United States District Court in February, describes a complex technological undertaking to commit credit card fraud:

The crime ring would allegedly plant skimming devices in multiple restaurants to steal account information from patrons paying their bills with credit cards.

An employee at a Huntington Beach restaurant, for example, would use the skimming devices and then sell them to the suspects once they were filled with victims’ account details, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

More than 500 credit cards were compromised, Mrozek said.

Once they had the loaded devices, the suspects would get their hands on new cards with magnetic strips – such as gift cards – and recode them with the stolen information.

The final touch, the indictment says, was to emboss the new cards with the suspects’ names.

From Oct. 23, 2013, to July 2, 2015, the suspects went on a shopping spree with those cards, dropping thousands of dollars at shops throughout Southern California, including Nordstrom, the Apple Store and Toys “R” Us.

They spent $327 at Touch of Romance, a Brea sex shop, the indictment says.