NEW BERN, N.C. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a Raleigh man has been sentenced to prison for his part in a credit card and cigarette trafficking scheme.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says 34-year-old Mamadou Salieu Barrie was sentenced to 54 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Barrie also was ordered to make restitution to his victims. The U.S. Probation Office found that 92 people and 18 banks were victimized.
Barrie pleaded guilty last August to aggravated identity theft and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices.
According to the indictment and other information, Barrie participated in a scheme in which people used stolen credit card account information to purchase large quantities of cigarettes in North Carolina. The cigarettes were resold on the black market in New York and other states.
In April 2011, Barrie was arrested on state charges after a search of his Raleigh apartment turned up 92 fraudulently re-encoded gift cards and 106 cartons of cigarettes. The following January, he was arrested during a traffic stop, at which time he was found in possession of 33 gift cards that had been re-encoded with stolen credit card data.
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