Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – The Attorney General of Mexico (FGR) obtained the extradition to Mexico of Mihai “N”, the alleged leader of a gang that illegally disposed of cash from ATMs and stole credit card information from tourists in Puerto Vallarta and other popular destinations.
According to intelligence reports and fieldwork, this organization carried out criminal operations in Mexico; A series of financial, material, and human resources were obtained for the creation of companies dedicated to the installation of ATMs in which internal devices for tracking bank card data were placed in Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Sayulita, and other tourist areas, says the FGR.
The criminal organization, internationally led by Mihai “N”, and whose subordinate in Mexico was Florian “N”, illegally disposed of cash from ATMs in Mexico City, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, the State of Mexico, and Hidalgo, for an amount of more than $70 million pesos.
Based on the information obtained, this gang began to operate in 2016 and it is presumed that they had the support of local authorities for their mission.
The Quintana Roo Prosecutor’s Office started a file on these facts, however it was not until the present administration that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) began the investigations of the case, which resulted in locating the modus operandi that consisted of that, through their ATM companies, they changed the slots and keyboards of the ATMs to illegally steal cash, which led to obtaining arrest warrants against Mihai “N” and Florian “N”.
In 2021, the District Judge Specialized in the Accusatory Criminal System of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in Mexico City, based in the South Prison, at the request of the FGR, granted an arrest warrant against Mihai “N”, for his probable responsibility in the crime of criminal association in the modality of improperly disposing of resources from credit institutions.
“This is how, through a red file from Interpol, requested by the FGR, Polish authorities arrested Mihai ‘N’ last July in that country; in August 2022, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office formalized before the Government of the Republic of Poland the extradition of this person and in January of this year, the Ministry of Justice of Poland declared his extradition to Mexico admissible”.
In Mexico, Florian “N”, a subordinate of today’s extradited, is currently facing trials for various crimes, after he was arrested in Mexico City on May 27, 2021, by the Federal Ministerial Police.
While Mihai “N” would have led this criminal gang internationally, his boss in Mexico would have been Florian “N”, alias “El Tiburón”, born on October 7, 1976, and arrested in Mexico City in 2021. A court in Romania ordered his capture for attempted murder, blackmail, and the formation of an organized crime network, while in Mexico he was accused of various robberies, such as the one committed at BBVA ATMs in 2019 for $150 million pesos, according to federal sources.
The criminal organization altered up to 100 ATMs in Cancun, Sayulita, Puerto Vallarta, and Tijuana, to steal tourist credit card data and withdraw money from their accounts, according to a Romanian court.
The operations of this gang began in March 2014, when through a front company named Top Life Servicios, it signed a contract with Multiva bank to install Instacash brand ATMs in tourist centers, which were used to clone tourist credit cards.
Some of the cloned cards in Mexico were used to withdraw money in other countries, as collectors operated in Indonesia, India, Barbados, Grenada, Paraguay, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
In addition, Javier Ocampo García, former delegate of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) in Quintana Roo, stated in 2021 that the Tudor group had the protection of state officials, this after participating in an investigation with the FBI and federal authorities on this criminal gang.
