Five replica guns, a Taser, a Canada Post uniform and at least 88,000 credit card numbers are just a small sampling of the bounty RCMP have uncovered from an identity theft operation in Burnaby.
Officers raided an 11th-floor condo near Metrotown Centre on March 7, seizing 15 hard drives, card printing equipment and more than 3,000 forged or stolen credit cards, debit cards, passports and driver's licenses – a haul so massive that weeks later, police are still working to determine the scope and impact of the case.
Insp. Tim Shields said police have only searched three hard drives so far, but have already located spreadsheets containing more than 44,000 identities – including full names, social insurance numbers, addresses and banking information.
"We have cut off the tentacle of a very large credit card and identity theft operation," Shields said. "Unfortunately, there are many other tentacles to this monster."
While waiting for a warrant to enter the condo, police arrested two people exiting the suite. Anthony Pavo Stulec, 29, and Stephanie Jean Smyth, 21, face 19 counts each including trafficking forged credit cards, possessing stolen property, fraudulent use of credit card data and possession of a prohibited weapon. Stulec remains in custody; Smyth has been released on bail.
Police received a tip earlier this month that a printer was dropped off at a computer repair shop with a forged credit card inside. Officers staked out the shop, waited for the customer to pick up the hardware and followed him back to what they describe as an "illegal credit card factory" containing mountains of physical and digital evidence.
A small amount of drugs and a set of "break and enter tools" were also found at the scene.
So far, investigators have linked recovered ID cards to more than 80 home and vehicle break-ins in Burnaby and Vancouver. They also found thousands of stolen hotel receipts with personal customer information attached.
Mounties believe information was also obtained by wallet and purse thefts and by stealing mail, possibly using the Canada Post jacket and mail bag found at the scene.
Shields said potential victims may have had identities stolen, bank accounts seized or had new lines of credit or credit cards issued in their names, and there could be thousands of people impacted.
"We will investigate for months to come," he said.
Police advise the public to avoid leaving identification or documents with personal information in the car and to shred mail before throwing it out or recycling it.
