(NewsNation) — Two Venezuelan members of the Tren de Aragua gang stole more than $110,000 by manipulating a drive-up ATM at a Western New York credit union, federal prosecutors said.
David Jose Gomez-Cegarra, 24, and 19-year-old Jesus Segundo Hernandez-Gil face charges of bank theft and conspiracy to commit bank theft after several fraudulent withdrawals were made at an ATM at Radius Federal Credit Union in Kenmore, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York said this week.
Prosecutors say surveillance video shows that Gomez-Cegarra drove a vehicle alongside the ATM on Oct. 5, 2024, while a co-conspirator opened the machine and installed something inside it. Over the next several hours, the vehicle visited the ATM multiple times and “conducted illegal withdrawals.”
What is ‘jackpotting’?
The practice of removing an ATM cover and infecting the hard drive or replacing it with an infected hard drive is known as “jackpotting.” Manipulating the computer inside the ATM allows thieves to “assume control of the ATM and cause it to dispense currency,” prosecutors said in a news release.
Radius Federal reported that $110,440 was stolen in the October theft. But it wasn’t the only time this particular crew effectively broke into ATMs, federal authorities allege.
Gomez-Cegarra, Hernandez-Gil and other co-conspirators last year were behind ATM jackpotting thefts in Framingham, Mass.; Dryden, New York; and at two locations in Southern Illinois, prosecutors said. Another $187,000 was allegedly stolen across these incidents.
Venezuelan gang members in police custody
Gomez-Cegarra and Hernandez-Gil were taken into local police custody in Central Illinois in November at the time of the ATM thefts in that state, prosecutors said. The Venezuelans are members of Tren de Aragua, a gang the Trump administration has designated as a global terrorist organization, the U.S. Attorney’s Office noted.
The charges the pair faces carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison. No further details were available.