

VIDEO: Glendale Police Department busts identity theft ring

The men — Edgar Alaverdyan, Karen Nazaryan, Serob Yegoyan, Edvard Martirosyan, Levon Mkrtchian and Emil Morkus — were allegedly making card-skimming devices, which were used to steal victims' account information. They were also manufacturing credit cards that were recoded with the victims' information to purchase gas, which was later resold to truckers, Glendale Police Sgt. Dan Suttles said.

"This is how they make their money," he said.


PHOTOS: Glendale authorities bust major identity theft ring




"It can be extremely dangerous," Suttles said. "It's gasoline rolling down the street. We don't know about it and it's a homemade gas tank, so you have the potential for bad things to happen."

Detectives from the Financial Crimes Unit launched the roughly seven-month-long investigation into the theft ring after officers stopped Mkrtchian and David Yezgatyan, in January for a window tint violation, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz.

During the stop, police recognized Mkrtchian as someone the Orange County Sheriff's Department had requested that other law enforcement agencies be on the lookout for, he added. Police allegedly discovered a flash drive and an illegal re-encoded credit card, so they arrested the pair.

Detectives later obtained a warrant to search the pair's physical therapy business in Glendale, where they discovered equipment to manufacture re-encoded credit cards.

Aided by the Los Angeles Police Department, the attorney general's office, U.S. Secret Service and the Orange County and Los Angeles County sheriff's departments, detectives continued their probe for months and discovered seven additional men were connected to the ring.




Prosecutors with the attorney general's office will likely file charges against the men in Los Angeles County, police said.




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