PA: Identity theft, counterfeit ring busted by Upper Darby cops

Linda Reilly reports:

A chance arrest for the alleged use of a bogus credit card led police to a major nationwide identity theft and counterfeiting ring, officials said.

[…]

“We called the Secret Service due to the number of credit cards,” Chitwood said. “Apparently the Greater Philadelphia area has been hit hard with stolen credit cards recently and the Secret Service came right to our station.”

According to Chitwood, additional information was obtained from the defendants leading Upper Darby, the Secret Service and Philadelphia police to obtain a search warrant for a Thanksgiving morning raid at a house on the 1000 block of South 57th Street, Philadelphia.

“They found a ton of credit cards and machinery to make credit cards,” Chitwood said. “They took over the investigation that will now focus on the thousands of cases of identity theft nationwide.”