Dallas Man Busted for His Role in Gas Station ID Theft Ring

Carrollton police have arrested a Dallas man they believe worked with five others to steal more than $500,000 from drivers whose identities they stole off at gas station pumps across North and East Texas. According to Carrollton cops, Yoandi Valdez, 33, worked with a crew that installed internal skimmers on...

By Stephen Young

October 20, 2017

There's not much any of these drivers could have done about an internal credit card skimmer. Joe Pappalardo

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Carrollton police have arrested a Dallas man they believe worked with five others to steal more than $500,000 from drivers whose identities they stole off at gas station pumps across North and East Texas.

According to Carrollton cops, Yoandi Valdez, 33, worked with a crew that installed internal skimmers on credit card terminals in cities such as Dallas, Arlington and Tyler. After acquiring a gas station's master key or another device to open the pumps and placing the skimmers, Valdez and friends accessed the data they wanted remotely, according to police.

click to enlarge

Yoandi Valdez is in Dallas County Jail on four counts of credit or debit card abuse and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity.

Dallas County

With the information lifted by the skimmers, Valdez and his five co-conspirators, who have not yet been arrested, created fraudulent credit cards, according to Carrollton police.

Those cards were used to buy thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, spirited away from stations in massive tanks hidden under the bed covers of large pickup trucks. One of the businesses allegedly ripped off by Valdez was in Carrollton, leading to the Carrollton Police Department investigation, which had assistance from the Dallas Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Tyler Police Department, the Texas Comptroller's Office and the Ellis County Sheriff's Department.

As of Thursday night, Valdez remained in Dallas County Jail, unable to make $2,000 bond.

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