Categories: News, Schenectady County

AMSTERDAM — The six-month-long investigation into credit card skimming devices found in Montgomery County has resulted in two more arrests, state police said.

State police arrested both men late last week after a break in the case came in Broome County. The arrests follow two others from December that resulted from a state police stakeout at a Fonda gas station.

An investigation began in September as officials discovered multiple skimming devices secretly attached to gas pumps in Amsterdam and Fonda.



Yudiel Ceballos (left) and Yuny Rodriguez Hurtado. (Provided)

State police in December arrested Yudiel Ceballos, 31, of Opa-Locka, Florida, and Yuny Rodriguez Hurtado, 29, of Miami, on charges that include first-degree criminal tampering.

Police last week arrested Yadiel Baez-Arias, 30, of Hialeah, Florida, and Yandy Arias-Mantilla, 34, of Miami Gardens, Florida, who were charged with grand larceny and scheme to defraud.

The last two arrests came following an October discovery that someone purchased numerous U.S. Postal Service money orders at post offices in Broome County using multiple debit cards.

Investigators connected those transactions to information stolen using the skimming devices in Amsterdam.

A search in Broome County found 42 counterfeit debit cards, six credit cards and a laptop computer in possession of the suspects.

The men face charges in both Broome County and Montgomery County. They were arraigned and ordered held on $150,000 bail.

The devices used in the scheme are electronic credit card readers that thieves place inside pumps to record credit card information from customers. They can affect both gas pumps and ATMs.





Authorities made the December arrests after discovering new devices, making them inoperable and waiting the thieves to return.

When Ceballos and Hurtado returned to download the information, police nabbed them. Inside their car troopers found a trove of related illegal items, including other skimming devices, a computer used to download information from the devices, forged credit cards and burglar tools.

Montgomery County officials asked the public to be watchful for such devices in September after finding them at three county gas stations in previous weeks.

County weights and measures officials had been on the lookout for the devices for more than a year, officials said. They got a notification Sept. 7 from a credit card fraud department about an Amsterdam station.

Further checks discovered devices at two other gas stations in the county. In all, officials found and removed them at two Amsterdam stations and the Fonda Mobil. Officials discovered at least one of the stations after an FBI alert concerning a Northeast skimming ring.

The devices are difficult to detect as they are placed inside the pump, officials say. A theory is that the thieves gain access to the pumps in the overnight hours and install the devices.

Officials recommend customers look for anything that appears tampered with and alert an employee or police.