Five suspects from Venezuela are facing federal fraud charges after being stopped at a police checkpoint in Lowndes County over the weekend, according to court documents.
Secret Service agents arrested Javier Alejandro Moline Borroto, Pavel Isaac Burgos Coronado, Joseph Nicole Vergara Moran, Daniel Pena Morales Gustavo and Valentina Syberg Castro Balza on Saturday. They all were formally charged Monday and are in custody in Oxford.
Mississippi Highway Patrol officers stopped the five suspects at a checkpoint set up on Highway 45 near Askew Road to check drivers’ licenses, according to federal court documents. The suspects were traveling in two different vehicles, and their stories about where they were going didn’t match.
According to the court documents, the suspects gave the officers permission to search the vehicles, where officers found multiple American Express credit cards, encoding devices, a small pick tool set and other items that led the troopers to suspect “some type of skimming operation.”
The suspects were arrested Saturday and formally charged Monday. They are currently in custody in Oxford.
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