A group of 12 people was indicted in Boulder County on suspicion of using credit and debit card skimming devices at convenience stores across the Front Range to steal or try to steal more than $300,000, largely from people on food-assistance programs.
Among the 12, eight people have already been arrested and charged with violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act when they drained people’s Colorado EBT accounts of funds, according to a Boulder County District Attorney’s Office news release. The Lafayette Police Department took the lead on the investigation — dubbed “” — into the crime ring, according to the release.
One minor was also arrested, according to the release. The eight arrested and three others were indicted on the following charges and remain in custody at the Boulder County Jail, according to online court records.
• Romario Ciuciu, 26, was charged with 34 counts, including COCCA, cybercrimes, theft and identity theft. Ciuciu is being held in jail on a $1 million bail.
• Viorel Isirius Tudor, 29, was charged with 23 counts, including COCCA, cybercrimes, theft and possession of identity theft materials. Tudor is being held on a $1 million bail.
• Ion Ciuciu, 49, was charged with 10 counts, including COCCA, cybercrimes, theft and possession of identity theft materials. Ciuciu is being held at the jail on $500,000 bail.
• Felicia Ciuciu, 48, was charged with 14 counts, including COCCA, cybercrimes, theft, tampering with evidence and possession of identity theft materials. Ciuciu is being held at the jail on $500,000 bail.
• Madalina Velcu, 21, was charged with six counts, including COCCA, tampering with evidence and possession of identity theft materials. Velcu is being held at the jail on $500,000 bail.
• Denisa Barbu, 24, was charged with 21 counts, including COCCA, cybercrimes, theft, tampering with evidence and possession of identity theft materials. Barbu is being held at the jail on $500,000 bail.
• Ana Maria Dumitru, 25, was charged with five counts, including COCCA and possession of identity theft materials. Dumitru is being held on a $250,000 bail.
The group, many of whom were members of two families, is accused of using card-skimming machines on ATMs and cash registers to target people on Colorado EBT, a government food assistance program. Some had their accounts drained, according to the release.
The machines would secretly record card and PIN numbers when people used the machines so the group could clone the cards and access accounts, the release states. The group targeted convenience stores — often 7-Elevens — in Boulder County and surrounding areas, including Westminster, Lakewood, Aurora, Arvada and Denver, according to an indictment.
The DA’s Office said the group operated for less than six months and stole or tried to steal at least $301,400.61 across 447 Colorado EBT cards. Law enforcement seized 236 cloned cards, the release states. Investigators also found devices believed to have been used to make the skimming devices in a search of one of the family’s apartments, according to the indictment.
In December, law enforcement placed a GPS tracking device on a vehicle that had been seen on surveillance footage at some of the convenience stores where card thefts had been reported. Detectives tracked the vehicle to two 7-Eleven locations in Longmont and later found card-skimming devices had been installed at those locations. Call records also placed members of the group at locations where the devices had been placed and locations where cloned cards were used.
“Once again, a crime ring victimizing people across the Front Range made the mistake of venturing into Lafayette,” District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in a statement. “Over the past few years, the Lafayette Police Department has repeatedly connected seemingly unrelated offenses to major crime operations to bring them to a halt.”
