Alleged Venezuelan skimmers charged

SEVEN VENEZUELANS and a Trinidadian with dual citizenship appeared yesterday before a magistrate, charged with trafficking of counterfeit cards, possession of card-making equipment and possession of marijuana.

The eight – 23-year-old Jose Gregorio Medina Gonzales, a Trinidadian with dual Venezuelan citizenship, Ricardo Ramiro Garcia Paz, 25, Illam Bracko, 25, Douglas Alberto Gomez Luzardo, 30, Charles Enrique Tarrealba Rodriguez, 32, Ender Nazare De Jesus Baptista Contreras, 35, Fernando Enrique Anzola Salas, 40, and Joaquin Javier Leal Villalobos, 41, were denied bail and remanded into custody after they appeared before a Tunapuna magistrate.

Fraud Squad ABM officers searched a house where the men were staying on Bedassie Street, St Augustine at about 9.30 pm last Tuesday.

During the search, police said they found items used to make skimming machines and to rig automatic banking machines in order to skim card numbers. Police also found TT$9,580, US$2,350, four packets of cured marijuana and Venezuelan passports, identification cards and driver’s permits.

The group was charged by Cpl Trim, of the Fraud Squad last Friday.

The matter was adjourned to October 21.