Secret Service Busts Credit Card Fraud Ring
Secret Service agents, joined by New Rochelle, New York police officers, executed an arrest warrant last week in an apartment on the 37th floor of the Skyline New Rochelle in the city's downtown area. The raid led to the detention of several individuals believed to be participating in a credit card fraud ring that has made stolen credit card purchases of approximately $3,000,000.
According to court records reviewed by New Rochelle Talk of the Sound, a local news publication, the credit card ring involved a network of individuals who traveled the country using stolen credit card information to purchase gift cards, flights, hotels, rental cars, and other goods and services.
The individuals involved are alleged to have solicited women via social media to fly to various locations and make fraudulent purchases with the hope of significant profits.
The alleged leader, Hamilton Eromosele, was charged in federal court in White Plains, New York with aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Police are reported to have found several stolen credit cards at the scene.
Sources have told Talk of the Sound that this investigation is the extension of an ongoing partnership between the New Rochelle Police Department and federal investigators to combat drugs and stolen money traveling through the city.
New Rochelle police Captain Cosmo Cosa has primarily referred media questions to the Secret Service, noting that his force received a request “at about 1900hrs...to assist the Secret Service with a search warrant.”
The Public Information Office of the Department of Homeland Security is closed during the government shutdown and therefore has not been able to comment on the events; however, witnesses say about 20 Secret Service agents and police officers dressed in SWAT gear arrived at the location shortly before 10:30pm. The Secret Service arrested 2 or 3 accomplices of Eromosele and then conducted a full search of the apartment.
This charge marks Eromosele’s second arrest.
In 2016, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, police officers arrested Eromosele on similar fraud charges.