Romanian Marius Milescu was sentenced Thursday to three-and-a-half years in prison for an international ATM skimming scheme.
Milescu entered the US illegally in 2011 from Mexico.
NBC-FW reported:
A Romanian man who admitted stealing information from ATM cards in Arlington in what police describe as a sophisticated international organized crime ring was sentenced Thursday to three-and-a-half years in prison.
Investigators said Marius Milescu, 24, is from Romania and crossed into the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2011.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Ty Stimpson. “What took place here got the ball rolling on a bigger investigation that has gone on across the country from coast to coast.”
The Romanian ring has been active all over Texas and in 20 other states – even Hawaii, police said.
“I hate to admit it, but it was almost genius,” Stimpson said.
The genius, he said, was in the high-quality, custom-made equipment the ring used. It’s a gadget that literally fits over the ATM’s card reader that copies cards’ electronic fingerprint and a separate tiny camera that records PINs as customers enter them.