A 44-year-old male resident of Laval is one of five suspects facing nearly 100 charges in Toronto for allegedly participating in a criminal ring involved in the theft of credit and banking cards from elderly victims in retail store settings.
Toronto Police Service investigators allege the suspects lingered at banks and retail stores between Sunday Dec. 10, 2023 and Saturday Oct. 19, 2024 for the express purpose of stealing bank and credit cards from unwitting persons.
According to the TPS, the suspects targeted the elderly using a variety of techniques to clandestinely obtain personal identification numbers (PINs) while stealing wallets containing credit and bank cards.
The suspects would then go to bank branches where they would withdraw funds.
These would in turn be used to buy pre-paid credit cards which would be applied to the purchase of expensive electronics and other luxury items.
A search warrant executed by the Toronto Police led to the seizure of the following items:
• Eight iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphones
• 50 smartwatches
• 56 bottles of designer perfume
• 21 fraudulent pre-paid credit cards worth $10,500
• $23,000 Canadian cash
• Lock-picking tools
• 32 provincial lottery tickets
• Two foil-lined “booster” bags (used to bypass electronic anti-theft detection)
• Multiple fake passports
• And four fraudulently-obtained vehicles identified as shipped overseas worth about $250,000
In all, five persons (two men and three women), are facing charges.
They are: Virgil Barbu, 44, of Laval, Constantin Florian, 39, of Montreal, Aura-Floria Florian, 40, of no fixed address, Dumitrita Pauniou, 49, of Milton, and Eugen Catruna, 52, of no fixed address.
