A Kissimmee, Florida, woman and two Lake Worth, Florida, men were arrested Tuesday after police said they used fake credit cards to purchase about $1,200 worth of gift cards.
At about 11:30 a.m., deputies with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office pulled over a white SUV for slowing down traffic. Inside, deputies found eight fake credit cards and 27 gift cards, according to a police report.
Authorities arrested Tammy Valdes Horta, 43; Manuel Leiva Orozco, 42; and Carlos Miguel Plasencia, 25, on nine charges of fraud for possessing the counterfeit credit cards.
During police questioning, Orozco said he bought the cards in Miami for $400 before driving to Kissimmee, Florida, with Plasencia, according to the report.
The plan, Orozco said, was to meet Horta and take a road trip to Arkansas, according to the report.
Horta said buying gift cards was the trip’s sole purpose. They stopped at several Wal-Mart locations and other stores as they traveled through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi before reaching Arkansas, she said.
Twenty-three of the gift cards were Vanilla MasterCards. The other four gift cards were from Home Depot, J.C. Penney and Macy’s, according to the report.
Authorities took the three suspects to the Alachua County Jail where, as of press time, Horta and Plasencia remain in lieu of $65,000 bonds, and Orozco remains in lieu of a $90,000 bond.
Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo.
