The Department of Justice is investigating more than 80 criminals, many of them foreign nationals and some members of a terrorist organization, in an “ATM jackpotting” scheme.
A federal grand jury in the District of Nebraska indicted 31 more individuals in an ever-growing investigation into a plot to deploy malware that allows the criminals to steal up to millions of dollars from ATM machines around the United States. The new indictment brings the total of charged fraudsters in this investigation up to 87, according to a Jan. 26 Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
The DOJ emphasized that the defendants include multiple Venezuelan and Colombian nationals, among them illegal alien Tren de Aragua (TdA) members. Donald Trump designated TdA a foreign terrorist organization last year.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche emphatically stated, “After committing bank robbery, fraud, and other serious crimes, they will be vigorously prosecuted and held accountable for their crimes. The Justice Department’s Joint Task Force Vulcan will not stop until it completely dismantles and destroys TdA and other foreign terrorists that import chaos to America.”
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My colleague Sarah Anderson reported on the original allegations for this case back in December, noting that the Maduro regime in Venezuela had weaponized TdA against Americans and that these particular TdA members, that is, the ones charged in Nebraska, did succeed in stealing millions of dollars with their fellow fraudsters through ATM jackpotting. Since then, of course, the Trump administration conducted an operation to capture Nicolás Maduro and bring him to justice here in the United States.
Among the ATM criminals is accused TdA leader Jimena Romina Araya Navarro, previously sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Authorities believe she helped TdA chief Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores escape jail. Always remember that these are the sort of human scum championed by leftist activists. The Democrat politicians and rioters are furious that justice is coming for criminals and terrorists who should never have been allowed into America in the first place.
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Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV) Co-Director Chris Eason commented on the mass fraud in the DOJ press release, “TdA grew from a prison gang to a transnational criminal organization to a foreign terrorist organization. Using sophisticated malware to empty ATMs and damage U.S. financial institutions that also fund TdA’s terrorist activity will not be tolerated.”
Attorney General Pamela Bondi said, “Tren de Aragua is a complex terrorist organization that commits serious financial crimes in addition to horrific rapes, murders, and drug trafficking. This Department of Justice has already prosecuted more than 290 members of Tren de Aragua.”
This is a win for America. Hopefully, every single one of the swindlers will receive justice for their crimes.
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