Release from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office
LOWNDES Co. – Last Tuesday, May 4 around 8:30 in the morning, Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office deputies clocked a vehicle traveling 89 miles per hour on Interstate 75. The deputy stopped the vehicle and spoke with both the driver and passenger and noticed seemed unusually nervous.
As the deputy continued to talk with the occupants who claimed to be traveling to see relatives in Georgia, he noticed there was no luggage in the vehicle. This paired with the obvious state of nervousness, a Sheriff’s Office canine unit arrived and performed a sniff of the vehicle exterior.
The canine provided a positive alert and a search of the vehicle was performed by deputies who located over 150 gift cards hidden in the interior of the car and a small quantity of cocaine.
Both Pedro Garcia-Feyt, 23, and Yordanis Ramos-Luenca, 28, of Miama, Fla. were placed under arrest and taken to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. Both men have been charged with possession of cocaine and forgery of financial transaction card.
The cards were examined and the majority had been re-encoded with credit card data. Detectives are continuing to work with the United States Secret Service and the various banks to identify and notify the victims any of whom are not aware their information has been compromised.
Pedro Garcia-Feyt and Yordanis Ramos-Luenca remain in the Lowndes County Jail.
Sheriff Chris Prine commented “The deputies continue to work to interrupt not only the drug traffickers but any criminal that moves up and down the interstate. These cases involving credit card fraud are steadily increasing and are becoming common among drug traffickers as a method of moving currency. Each one of these re-encoded cards affected a different victim, so we have a lot of work to do.”
Sheriff Prine also stressed that detectives are continuing to notify the many unsuspecting victims that their card data has been compromised.
Anyone with information about this incident or any other can contact the Sheriff’s Office at {229} 671-2950; or anonymous tips can be provided at {229} 671-2985 or on-line at www.lowndessheriff.com. The Sheriff’s Office is also accessible on Facebook.
