BEAUMONT, Texas —
A suspect involved in a 2017 credit card skimming case in Beaumont was taken into federal custody in January for an outstanding warrant as he returned to the U.S. from Cuba.
Carlos Garcia, 33, and Alfredo Almaguer-Almira, 35, were indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2018 according to a Beaumont Police news release. Before the indictment, both suspects had bonded out of the Jefferson County Jail and fled the country. Almaguer-Almira was taken into custody on January 4 according to federal documents. He returned to the U.S. and was arrested after flying into Miami International Airport according to the news release.
On September 10, 2017, at 10:22 p.m., police were called to Gators West at 2890 Dowlen Road by a witness watching two subjects tampering with a gas pump according to a Beaumont Police news release. Officers arrived on the scene to find Garcia and Almaguer-Almira tampering with a gas pump according to the release.
Police found the men had a credit card skimmer and multiple prepaid Visa cards according to release. Detectives came to the scene to continue the investigation. Garcia and Almaguer-Almira were arrested for fraud-use/possession of identifying information and were taken the the Jefferson County Jail according to release.
BPD Detectives and U.S. Secret Service Agents worked to determine how much information was on the skimmer the suspects had, and learned the account information from 258 different credit cards was held by the skimmer according to the release. The potential loss from the cards was 1.3 million dollars.