The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
A Virginia Beach man faces an 18-count federal indictment charging him with trying to smuggle hundreds of credit card holograms into the country from the Middle East.
Craig Steven Reynolds, 26, was arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and a magistrate judge set an Aug. 17 trial date.
Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Reynolds on April 19 when he tried to retrieve a package containing the holograms, which had arrived from the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, according to a court affidavit filed by the arresting agent.
Reynolds apparently realized the move would be risky: "I knew I should have waited a week to pick it up," he told ICE agent Adriana Mirarchi, according to the affidavit.
Reynolds has been in jail since then.
Holograms can be used as a security device placed on credit and debit cards to prevent duplication.
A Customs and Border Protection officer, conducting routine mail checks at a Federal Express facility in Memphis, opened an envelope addressed to "Paul Jones" in Virginia Beach and discovered 504 counterfeit holograms on 12 sheets of paper. The border protection agency is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The officer sent the envelope on to its destination at a UPS store on Great Neck Road in the Beach, where Reynolds picked it up using a false identification in the name of Paul Jones, according to Mirarchi's affidavit.
Reynolds told Mirarchi that he purchased the holograms over the Internet from someone in Pakistan for an unidentified sum of money and planned to fabricate Visa cards, the affidavit says,
Further investigation by ICE agents revealed that Reynolds had already produced a number of phony credit cards and used them to obtain cash and purchase an unidentified amount of merchandise, including a laptop computer, according to an indictment handed up by a federal grand jury on June 10.
The indictment says Reynolds created driver's licenses, Navy identification cards, and credit and debit cards in both real and fabricated names.
As a result of the alleged fraud, federal authorities said in a court filing that they are seeking to take from Reynolds a 2003 Jaguar sedan, seven iPods, four cameras, five video game consoles, a laptop and a GPS system.
Reynolds' attorney and the prosecutor in the case declined to comment or provide further details this week.
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
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Broken System
This is why our system is broken. I understand we have a right to a "Fair Trial", but if he is guilty (which he admitted and confessed his plans and priors) he is guilty. He should not be allowed to plead "Not Guilty" in hopes that his lawyer can find a loophole. All that does is open the door for him to lie in court (if he is 'now' claiming to be not guilty), and because no one cares about God in the courtroom anymore (i.e. swearing on a Bible, which holds no relevance unless you're a Christian anyway), many people DO lie in court. It's a broken system. Why even waste the time? Why not just sentence him? Still, for forging Military IDs I hope he gets the maximum sentence if/when found guilty. Imagine if he made an ID for someone wanting to pull-off a similar attack as that of Fort Hood. Too bad upholding a Traitor's punishment by Death isn't likely to be practiced.
People have confessed to
People have confessed to crimes that they did not do so I am assuming that is one of the reasons they are not convicted on the spot. The other is plea bargains sometimes lead to the big fish to get at the source.
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People have been coerced into false testimony, but being caught "Red handed", so to speak, is different. As for the "Plea Bargain" statement - that does not apply. In order to do so, he would HAVE to plead GUILTY for a lesser sentence. In this case, he was learned about, caught, and confessed to the crime. He has no options short of guilty. He could agree to work w/ authorities in exchange for a lesser sentence, but it does not change his plea/verdict. He is guilty, open and shut. Besides, "two wrongs don't make a right" mean anything to you. If a killer gets a lesser sentence to catch 3 killers, is that okay? Not to me, it's not. 1 at a time, if need be. But PUNISH them for their crimes. Then, when their (mandated) time is served, help them acclimate back to society. That is the idea, right?