Three men from Venezuela, who now live in Florida and Utah, are being held in the Ada County Jail after Eagle Police arrested them trying to set up fake accounts at two different banks on Tuesday.
Investigators also found stolen credit cards, fake money orders, blank checks, and other evidence of bank fraud in their car.
Heli G. Tronconis-Atencio, 22, Cesar A. Cano-Muskus, 24, and Dioban J. Pineda-Urdaneta, 19, are charged with felony criminal conspiracy and are being held in jail on $50,000 bonds. Pineda-Urdaneta is also being held on an arrest warrant from Florida.
Eagle Police began their investigation just before 1 p.m. after getting a call from a bank on Riverside Drive that two men with Venezuelan passports were trying to set up new accounts, while another tried take out $10,000 from different account.
The bank had been warned to call police if that happened as part of a fraud investigation, and bank officials denied the withdrawal.
By the time police arrived, the men were gone but bank officials were able to give officers a good description of the car they were in – a blue Kia Forte.
Officers fanned out over town and found the car moments later.
They followed the car as it pulled into a different bank on Eagle Road, where the two men, later identified as Tronconis-Atencio and Cano-Muskus, went in and tried to open new accounts with their passports.
Officers also determined the temporary license tag on the car, from a different state, was for a Hyundai, not a Kia.
Once police arrived at the bank, the driver of the Kia, Pineda-Urdaneta, tried to leave, with the two other men inside, but officers blocked him in.
That’s when they figured out Pineda-Urdaneta had a felony arrest warrant out of Florida. Officers eventually took all three men into custody.
Detectives got a search warrant for the Kia and found the stolen credit cards, money orders, bank receipts, blank checks, and three loaded handguns.
Officers arrested the three men and booked them into the Ada County Jail.
The whole incident and investigation was a group effort by Eagle Police to identify and then stop a travelling fraud crew before they could do any more damage – a job made easier by employees at both banks for being wise and working so well with officers.