Gainesville Police arrested two Tampa men Tuesday afternoon after one tried to use a fake credit card at a local Walgreens.
Police arrested Edel Gomez, 25, of Tampa, on charges of trafficking in counterfeit credit card, fraudulent use of credit card and scheming to defraud and obtain property. Yuneski Perdomo, 31, of Tampa, was arrested on charges of accessory after the fact, according to a GPD arrest report.
At about 5:45 p.m., Gomez went into the Walgreens, in the 1600 block of Northwest 13th Street, according to the report, and tried to buy a $400 gift card with a U.S. Bank Visa card with Gomez’s name on it.
Walgreens staff contacted the U.S. Bank Customer Service Manager/Fraud Liaison and verified that the card was not from the bank, according to the report.
A GPD officer also discovered that the card had a Bank of America number printed on it, according to a GPD news release.
Gomez left the store and drove away inside a silver BMW sedan toward the CVS, in the 1500 block of Northwest 13th Street, according to the report.
Police followed the car and stopped it in the 1500 block of Northwest 13th Street, according to the report.
Police searched the car and found 24 fraudulent credit cards in the center console, three counterfeit credit cards in Gomez’s wallet, 10 cartons of cigarettes on the floor, 46 cartons of cigarettes in the trunk and 21 gift cards worth about $3,950, according to the report.
Officers also found three pieces of paper with a long list of credit card numbers.
GPD Economic Crimes Detective Matt Goeckel, also a member of the U.S. Secret Service Northeast Florida Task Force, confirmed that the cards were fraudulent.
He said Gomez’s arrest will lead police to catch more credit card fraud criminals.
“I’m confident this will lead to the bigger ring and hopefully a lot more victims,” he said. “Somewhere, their information was stolen, and that’s where we like to try to go: back to the source.”
Police booked Gomez and Perdomo into the Alachua County Jail at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, where they remained later that day with $300,000 and $250,000 bonds, respectively.
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
