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From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

Telegram channel "Sex, cartels, Frida Kahlo "tells, how a Romanian gang robbed tourists in Mexican resorts, what are skimmers and what resources were involved in one of the largest cybercrimes of the last few years.

About the Balkan mafia and individual criminal groups, operating in South and Central America, not known for the first time. Albanians are firmly established in the Ecuadorian port of Guayaquil and control several cocaine routes., and Romanians help drug cartels - in particular, Sinaloa cartel, – to deliver cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela to the UK.

But times are changing: drugs are no longer the most profitable occupation. AT 2014 one of the Romanian gangs, dubbed by journalists and law enforcement as the Riviera Mayan gang, set up her own ATM management company, operating in almost all popular Mexican resorts.

From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

how to steal millions

For starters, let's talk about, what is skimming and how does it work. The skimmer itself is a device, allowing in one way or another to steal data when in contact with bank cards. The device is of different types: sometimes the skimmer is disguised as ATM parts, and in advanced versions, the ATM itself can be a skimmer, how did the Riviera Mayan gang members do it.

From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

All the fun happens after, how an unsuspecting person inserts a card into a card reader and enters a PIN code. The card is either blocked for a period, for which criminals manage to transfer money from the account, or card data is read by a skimmer, and the card is cloned.

The last option was used by the Romanian mafia.

The situation was made easier, that all that is needed to read the data is the contact of the skimmer with the magnetic stripe on the card. It is considered, that having a microchip helps protect your data from skimming. In fact, physical contact is enough..

Specialists from the Riviera Maya group installed skimmers in 100 ATMs throughout Mexico, which allowed them to clone cards and withdraw funds from ATMs in other countries - in India, Brazil, Grenade, Parvaes, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan. One skimmer cloned about 1000 bank cards per month, and from the account of each of the victims was withdrawn from 200 to 800 dollars. On average, the Riviera Mayan group "earned" almost 20 millions of dollars.

From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

However, they acted with great care.: money was withdrawn from the card at least three months after the data was read, Besides, the cards were then additionally used in different cities around the world. Track a place, where the card was cloned, it was almost impossible.

Riviera Mayan skimmers were connected to internal electronics and transmitted data via Bluetooth - gang members occasionally just walked past ATMs with smartphones and collected stolen data.

ATMs were supplied by Intacash, belonging to no one, a Olegario Vasquez Aldir, one of the richest men in Mexico and a member of the Business Advisory Council of the President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

OCCRP Multimedia Investigation, as well as the site KrebsOnSecurity showed, that many Intacash employees were involved in criminal fraud. So, to specialists, servicing ATMs, Intacash employees periodically contacted, installing them. They offered the amount, many times the monthly salary, in exchange for access to terminals.

From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

Subsequently, skimmers were found in ATMs in Cancun., Cosumele, Playa del Carmen, Tulum. The gang did not ignore the West Coast of Mexico - Puerto Vallarta, Salit and Tijuana.

Riviera Maya did not install their ATMs in hotels, placing them exclusively on the street - after all, having discovered something was wrong, the victim could well file a complaint against the hotel, where he stopped. This would provoke proceedings or even police investigations., who were of little interest. Besides, most hotels in Mexican resorts are owned by drug cartels.

Characters

The alleged leader of the Riviera Maya is a 43-year-old Florian Tudor, also nicknamed Shark and Mexican nickname El Tiburon. He arrived in Mexico from the Romanian Craiova, taking along a few friends, one of which was Adrian Thewgan (he's Mufa, aka El Jack), who was previously tried for fraud with ATMs in Italy and the Vatican. It was Tugan who began to create shell companies, through which the gang entered into contracts for the purchase of ATMs and laundered the money earned.

Some companies were registered on Paul Daniel Ionete, also a native of Craiova and a wanted criminal by Romania. To register another legal entity, Tugan used a Mexican residence permit and a fake temporary Romanian passport with his photo and Ionete's data.

Despite, that temporary Romanian passports are valid for only a year, and Ionete was put on the international wanted list, for five years of such activity, the Mexican authorities had no complaints against the Romanian businessmen - which also leads to certain thoughts.

From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

Later, at 2015 year, Tudor's half-brother arrives in Cancun, Adrian Enachescu, who began to work with Tyugan. Some time later, they were joined by an entrepreneur and philanthropist from the Romanian city of Constanta Ion Damian Nedescu.

After Nedescu joined the cause, the group has begun purchasing Chinese ATMs Triton and Hyosung. All important transactions of this kind were made through Top Life Servicios..

In the end,, Top Life Servicios generated income in 240 million dollars a year and was not subject to any taxes. The group has expanded to 1000 human, and in her leadership remained only 50.

Among other things, at 2015 Riviera Maya created Investcun Real Estate, headquartered in Cancun. AT 2019 she was already involved in the development of a residential complex and a golf course in Puerto Morelos, another resort.

The "grid" also included the export company Mexrou, manufacturer of sportswear and sports equipment Alto Mundo, business, engaged in car rental and repair of Intacarrent and Brazil Money Exchange, whose branches were located throughout the resort of the Riviera Maya.

End of the Riviera Maya

Tudor and his team attracted close attention from Mexican law enforcement after the death of one of Shark's partners and friends - Sorinel Constantin Marcu. According to the current version, Marcu refused to use his legal business for money laundering, and also failed to commit the murder of one of the witnesses, who learned about the machinations of the Riviera Maya.

From Romania to Cancun: how the gang of the Riviera Maya robbed Mexican tourists

From May 2019 arrests began in Mexico: five employees of Top Life Servicios, and with them the Shark himself, were detained after searches in the company's offices. However, pretty soon Tudor was free and started a campaign against the head of the Public Security Directorate of the state of Quintana Rho Jesus Albert Chapel of Ibarra. Tudor accused Capella of, that he "sewn" the case against his organization, to steal computer equipment from the office, art and cash worth 2,7 million dollars.

30 Martha 2020 Tudor and his henchman were again arrested on charges of murder. Subsequently, Tudor continued to insist, that all skimming scams and network of companies were created exclusively by Mark, and he is an honest businessman and has nothing to do with it. Furthermore, Marku allegedly threatened to rape Tudor's Romanian wife (by the way, an enterprising comrade had four partners in different countries in addition to his official wife) and kill his little son.

Investigation not completed at this time. Although Intacash ATMs have disappeared from the streets of Mexican resorts, half of the companies from the Tudor syndicate are still operating, and with the official permission of the Mexican authorities.

Arrest of Tudor (whose sentence is, by the way, not rendered) unlikely to secure funds for Mexican tourists. Furthermore, a perfectly built system will be transferred to the wrong hands and launched under other names, continuing to fulfill their "legitimate" 10% in the global skimming fraud market.

Author: Frida Kahlo

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