Member of Cuban credit card skimming crew sentenced to prison

Published Monday, Mar. 14, 2022, 3:02 pm

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A Cuban man was sentenced to 37 months in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

According to court documents, Denis Monsibaez Diaz, 38, and other co-conspirators, all of whom are Cuban nationals, placed skimming devices on gas pumps located in Northampton County. The skimming devices were capable of recording the credit and debit bank card numbers, along with the PINs, of the customers that used their cards at the gas pumps.

In April and May 2018, using the stolen card information, Diaz and his co-conspirators traveled between Harris Teeter store locations, among other destinations, to withdraw money from the victims’ bank accounts and purchase prepaid debit gift cards. They were attributed with attempting to steal over $200,000 in a matter of days as a result of those gas pump skimmers.

Diaz is the seventh defendant sentenced for this conspiracy. The crew was attributed with aggregate losses of over $5 million over several years. In addition, many of the defendants had significant criminal histories involving the same conduct and were known to travel the country perpetrating this scheme.

The leader of the crew, Yasmani Granja Quijada, 33, was found to be trading over 9,800 additional stolen credit card numbers using his email account over the past few years. On January 4, 2021, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the conspiracy.

The FBI and U.S. Marshals Service seized numerous vehicles and other items that were purchased by the defendants with funds stolen through credit cards, including a boat and luxury vehicles. Several other conspirators remain at large.