Police raided a home in northwest Miami-Dade on Wednesday and inside they found several hundreds of stolen credit cards. Detectives hauled away at least 200 credit cards and equipment used to make the bogus cards.
"They pretty much have the main components you need to re-encode credit cards and to counterfeit credit cards," said Det. Marcos Rodriguez with Miami-Dade Police.
Police said the equipment was used to change prepaid Visa gift cards into what looks like actual credit cards, and high-priced items police said crooks, in cases like this, typically buy with fake credit cards and then resell on the streets.
"How they make their money is not just by credit card numbers, they have to turn it into something tangible," Det. Rodriguez said.
These are just some of the things investigators said tell the story of the illegal credit card manufacturing operation that was inside the home.
"This is a significant find," Det. Rodriguez said.
A significant bust police said happened accidentally, "Earlier this morning they were executing an arrest warrant when the officers went in and observed some of the items you see here. They contacted us at the Economic Crimes Bureau."
Local
According to police the warrant was issued for 38-year-old Terry Pierre Louis.
Police said Louis wasn't inside the home, but someone else was. That man was sitting in the back of a cop car when the NBC 6 crew arrived, and was later identified as 28-year-old Claude Junior Etienne.
Etienne now faces multiple charges including credit card forgery, possessing equipment to make credit cards, and possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon.
In addition to the items seized for money and credit fraud, investigators found a stolen gun.
