OMAHA, NE – An investigation led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Omaha office led to two criminal illegal aliens being sent to federal prison this past June in connection with an ATM “jackpotting” scheme intended to fund the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua.
Back in October of 2024, Lincoln Police out of Nebraska arrested two men, 36-year-old Carlos Javier Padron and 37-year-old Oddry Arnoldo Cabrera Torrealba, who went by the alias of Luis Alejandro Berdugo Barraza, on suspicion of carrying out an ATM jackpotting scheme at a bank located off of West O Street and Capitol Beach Boulevard.
At the time of the incident, the bank manager was alerted to an alarm at the ATM, with video reportedly showing a man in a surgical mask opening the ATM hatch and loading the contents into an adjacent white van before taking off. Lincoln Police responded shortly thereafter, locating the suspect vehicle in a nearby parking lot and arresting Padron and Torrealba upon discovering burglary tools and a solid state drive consistent with ATM jackpotting schemes.
According to authorities, the solid state drive used in the aforementioned robbery deploys sophisticated malware to ATMs, allowing would-be looters to empty the contents of said machines.
What the ensuing investigation uncovered was more than a simple robbery of an ATM, as federal investigators linked the duo’s criminal activity to funding the notoriously violent transnational gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA). Federal authorities have reportedly identified a massive network of co-conspirators involved in these ATM jackpotting schemes to behoove TdA, with 96 other defendants having been indicted for their alleged respective roles.
Padron and Torrealba are reportedly both illegal aliens from Venezuela, with authorities saying Padron entered the United States back in 2021 and Torrealba having entered the country at an unknown date and location. Additionally, Padron harbors a criminal record out of Mexico, having been arrested in Guadalajara in January 2017 on charges of attempted murder, armed robbery, and drug possession.
On June 25th, Padron and Torrealba were sentenced in federal court to six-and-a-half years in prison alongside having to pay restitution collectively in the amount of $1,537,696 following the two being convicted of conspiracy to commit bank burglary, computer fraud and intentional damage to a protected computer.
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