On May 16, 2018, at approximately 9:30 a.m., a Yavapai County Sheriff’s deputy stopped a gray 2017 Ford Explorer for an equipment violation on east I40 in Ash Fork, Arizona.
Based on an investigation after the traffic stop, the following suspects were arrested and booked into the detention center in Camp Verde on the indicated charges:
Driver Bernard Tran, 32-years-old, from California. Charges included Possession of a Forged Instrument and a Warrant for Money Laundering. Remains in-custody on a $25,000 bond.
Passenger Trung Nguyen, 34-years-old, from California. Charges include Possession of Dangerous Drugs (Methamphetamine), Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (Methamphetamine), Possession of Forgery Equipment (Skimmer), and Forgery of a Credit Card x 2. He remains in-custody on a $80,000 bond.
Passenger Socheat Vun, 32-years-old, from California. Charged with Possession of a Forged Instrument x 3. He remains in-custody on a $20,000 bond.
Loannie Ly, 28-years-old, from California. Charged with Possession of a Forged Instrument x 15. She remains in-custody on a $20,000 bond.
Tran was unusually nervous during initial contact with the deputy while discussing the traffic violation. The Ford Explorer had been rented by Tran’s sister. She was not in the vehicle. During further conversation with the driver and passengers, the deputy determined the group was likely involved in some form of criminal activity. Suspect Tran refused the deputies request to conduct a search of the vehicle for contraband. As a result, the deputy deployed K9 ‘Gemma,’ certified in the detection of the odor of marijuana, cocaine, meth, and heroin. During an exterior sniff of the vehicle, K9 Gemma displayed an alert to the odor of narcotics.
During a search of the vehicle to find the source of the odor, deputies found more than 7 grams of meth under the front seat. Additionally, deputies located several bags containing dozens of Visa and Mastercard blanks along with various credit and debit cards. Suspect Vun had 3 forged credit cards on his person, one embossed with his name. Suspect Ly possessed 15 forged credit cards found in her purse. After a more detailed search of the vehicle in a secure facility, deputies found a card skimmer which is a device used to read credit card magnetic strips, along with additional forged cards in various account names including Visa gift cards, Chase, Walmart, Sam’s Club, among many others. Several laptop computers were also seized.
Nguyen later admitted direct involvement in possessing the meth, credit card skimmer and several forged credit cards.
Deputies verified that the suspects had rewritten the magnetic strip information on several cards seized. Deputies also seized a card reader/writer/encoder commonly used by fraud rings to re-write magnetic strips.