Florian Tudor "The Shark," alleged mastermind of the renowned ATM skimming gang, has been detained in Mexico City on Thursday 27th May 2021 following a Romanian court's arrest demand and had gathered hundreds of millions of dollars from bank accounts of tourists visiting Mexico for the past eight years.
Tudor, from Craiova, Romania, traveled to Mexico to establish Intacash a Top Life Servicios, an ATM services company that operated a network of comparatively new ATMs in Mexico.
On Thursday, Florian Tudor, "The Shark" was arrested while he was taken into custody by Mexican Attorney General officers. As shown in a video published by media organizations, the situation broke out in wrestling, screaming, and officials bringing Tudor out of the house by his arms and legs.
The federal law enforcement agency in Mexico alleged that members of Tudor tried to attack a policeman before they were arrested.
Robert Bica, a Bucharest lawyer of Tudor, verified the Romanian newspaper Libertatea of his detention. Now, in the following two or three weeks, a Mexican judge will decide on his deportation.
An insider from Romania's organized crime prosecution reported to the same publication that the United States authorities played an important role in investigating Tudor, who is said to have targeted thousands of US tourists in Mexico and is considered responsible for approximately 12% of global skimming.
Tudor as well as his own Riviera Maya Gang are the most recent twist in a long history of criminality by law enforcement officers and foreign journalists.
The gang, entitled by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project -OCCRP, has hacked over 100 ATMs around Mexico – Cancun, Tulum, Cozumel, and elsewhere to discreetly raise $1.2 billion from victim bank accounts, as revealed by OCCRP. The system relied in part on Bluetooth skimmers, which bank staff paid for their services implanted in ATMs.
Last year Tudor was arrested on charges of attempted murder, blackmail, and the development of an organized crime network that is specialized in human trafficking, by a Romanian court following his conviction in absentia.
Tudor has also been investigated by the Bucharest authorities in the matter of the trafficking of thousands of Romanian of Roma origin in Mexico and the United States where they are reportedly taken to steal, beg and claim refuge for prosecution on the grounds of fleeing Romanian racial persecution.
Over time, Mexican governments have examined Tudor and his firms' bank accounts and researchers believe that Tudor and his friends have offered protection and hushed money over the years for various Mexican politicians and officials. The Leader of the Green Party in Mexico came down in February when it became apparent that he was receiving cash from Tudor.
The authorities of Mexico have arrested Tudor for the second time. Tudor and his subordinates were arrested in April 2019 for illegally owning guns. The arrest took place only months after Tudor allegedly instructed a former bodyguard to assist US officials in bringing the organization down on profitable skimming practices.