SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — Four people were arrested earlier this month in connection with a gift card tampering case in Sacramento County.
According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, a multi-agency retail crimes task force investigation culminated on Nov. 14 when authorities found four people went to more than 100 grocery and hardware stores across eight Northern California counties, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.
As a result of the investigation, deputies recovered more than 7,000 tampered gift cards, impounded two vehicles and found a hotel room had been turned into a gift card tampering and shipping site.
“With this investigation and set of arrests, detectives were able to save citizens of Sacramento and the surrounding counties more than $3,000,000 in potential loss,” wrote the sheriff’s office on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office identified the four suspects as Jian Chen, Qiang Xue, Chunliang Fang and Xuewei Yu. Deputies said the four are Chinese citizens who traveled to Central America and entered the U.S. illegally through the southern border in the last 18 months.
All four are being held at the Sacramento County Main Jail on $500,000 bail.
The sheriff’s office says its Organized Retail Crimes Task Force has recovered around 20,000 gift cards in the last year.
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