A routine traffic stop this week has unravelled an international debit card fraud ring, has led to 373 criminal charges and possibly has broken up a Tamil Tiger terrorist fundraising and money laundering operation, police said Wednesday.
TORONTO- A routine traffic stop this week has unravelled an international debit card fraud ring, has led to 373 criminal charges and possibly has broken up a Tamil Tiger terrorist fundraising and money laundering operation, police said Wednesday.
All because four men ran a stop sign in a Scarborough, Ont., last Monday, Det. Peter Trimble said.
"That's not too smart a thing to do when you're driving a van full of stolen bank cards," he said. "And they had been drinking and had open liquor in the car, which also isn't very smart."
Constables Scott Aikman and Patrick Pelo saw the rented van cruise through a stop sign and pulled up behind them in his cruiser, his lights flashing. That is when the officers noticed one of the four men inside frantically trying to hide something in the back of the van.
When the van finally stopped, the two constables realized immediately the driver had been drinking and there was open liquor in the vehicle. "That gave them the right to search the vehicle, which they did, and found a number of plastic gift cards," said Trimble
Those cards later proved to have debit card information on the magnetic strip on the back, which police believe was stolen from bank customers in the United Kingdom. All four were arrested and another such card was found in one of their wallets.
Police later searched a hotel and a home and found another 88 cards, all with debit card data from British banks on their magnetic strips, as well as $25,000 in Canadian $20 bills, laptop computers and memory sticks, receipts for money transfers to the U.K., travel documents and passports and what detectives described as "Tamil Tiger paraphernalia."
But Trimble could not confirm the bank card fraud ring was tied to the Tamil Tigers, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is officially listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government, but is believed to be continuing fund-raising activities here through various front organizations.
"Is there a huge global conspiracy behind this? It's too early in the investigation to confirm anything like that," he said. "But there is clearly an international connection."
John Thompson, the executive director of the Mackenzie Institute, said the debit-card ring has all the hallmarks of a Tamil Tiger fund-raising operation. "This is the new standard in how terrorist groups fund themselves," he said. "It's the fastest-growing area of crime in the world and it's not going to go away anytime soon."
Thompson said similar operations have been broken up by police in the past, including one in 1993 when 18 men were arrested for skimming debit cards from customers at a Toronto gas station. "Supporters of the Tamil Tigers have been doing this in Canada for at least the last 10 years."
Trimble said the cards seized were worth an estimated $250,000. The data on them had been "skimmed" from British bank card users, likely through a debit machine rigged to record their cards' electronic signature and a small camera positioned to record the bank users' PIN number. Police also found card-reading hardware and a pinhole camera during their searches of the home and the hotel.
Two of those arrested are from London, England, and Toronto police have contacted Interpol, said Trimble.
Pratheepan Thambu, 22, Lojanand Srianandan, 27, both of Toronto, Sethukavalar Saravanabavan, 35, and Kirubakaran Selvanayagam Pillai, 38, both of London, U.K., each face 41 charges of fraudulent possession of credit card data; 41 charges of possession of property obtained by crime; and one of participating in a criminal organization. Pillai faces an additional 41 charges of fraudulent possession of credit card data.
They are scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
National Post
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