Odor of pot leads cops to alleged tax fraud operation
A strong odor of marijuana led College Park police to a hotel room where they discovered an apparent identity theft ring trafficking in fraudulent income tax returns, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Police arrested and charged three men who they said were holed up in the room with dozens of stolen credit cards, people’s personal information, a patient list from a medical practice, tax returns and 30 debit cards.
Antonio Mitchell of College Park, Jerrold Malone of Forest Park and Calvin Neal, whose city of residence was not immediately available, face about 30 counts each of financial transaction card fraud, authorities said.
Mitchell also was charged with one count each of marijuana possession and violation of probation, according to Clayton County Jail records.
A police officer checking a hotel guest’s complaint about a strong smell of pot coming from a room in the Quality Hotel at 5115 Phoenix Blvd. on March 13 found not only marijuana in clear plastic bags and a digital scale, but evidence of financial fraud, police said.
“They located a number of financial transactions cards or credit cards, debit cards in the names of various people,” Deputy Chief Ferman Williford of the College Park Police Department told Channel 2.
Williford said officers also discovered “a listing of names that we're concerned about where we believe that there may be other victims of tax fraud as well.”
Among the items seized, police said, were 30 Turbo Tax Visa debit cards, and three notebooks containing people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, phone numbers and notes such as “filed,” “on the way” and “rejected,” according to a police report.
Police also found tax returns “sent to a consistent group of addresses with nicknames beside them suggesting they were the addresses of acquaintances,” the report said. “A set of documents titled ‘Patient List’ from ‘The Art of the Smile’ with corresponding names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and email addresses was also located.”
Williford said, “We don't know how that [list] was obtained yet. That's still under investigation.”
Officers also seized a Dell laptop computer and cell phones that were password-protected and could not immediately be searched.
Police said they are notifying the people whose identities may have been stolen.
