Three individuals have been sentenced to significant prison terms following their involvement in a credit card skimming operation that targeted customers at retail outlets in North Texas. The Dallas County Criminal District Attorney's Office reported that Gheorge-Ciprian Hilitanu, Victor Tecu, and Ionut Firan-Alexandrau each pleaded guilty to multiple felonies related to the scheme, which affected at least 783 victims in July 2025.
The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center led the investigation, revealing that the defendants had installed hidden skimming devices on payment terminals at CVS and Walgreens locations. These devices captured debit and credit card information without the victims' knowledge.
Following their arrests, law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at a rental property where the suspects were staying, uncovering over 150 skimming devices, 237 re-encoded gift cards with stolen data, and equipment for creating counterfeit cards.
On June 25, 2026, Hilitanu received a 30-year prison sentence for organized criminal activity, along with additional sentences for related charges. Tecu and Firan-Alexandrau were sentenced to 20 years each on June 29. Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot emphasized the impact of such financial crimes on the lives of ordinary people.
