TYLER, Texas — Arrest documents allege that three Dallas men worked together to install malware on a bank ATM in Tyler for financial gain in December. An investigation by the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center also found they are connected to multiple similar schemes across Texas and other states.
Mickael Toloza Parra, 32, Luis Oviedo Rico, 34, and Elvis Oviedo Rico, 30, all of Dallas, are being held in the Smith County Jail on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity in connection with a Dec. 19 incident at a Southside Bank location in Tyler. The Oviedo Rico brothers were arrested Jan. 30 and remain jailed on $1 million bonds. Toloza Parra was arrested March 30 and remains jailed on a $1.5 million bond.
According to arrest affidavits, the three men participated in a cyber-physical crime known as “jackpotting,” which is typically carried out by organized criminal groups. In these schemes, suspects install malicious software or hardware onto an ATM’s hard drive or computer system. Criminal associates located outside the country then remotely intercept and redirect electronic signals from the ATM, causing the machine to approve transactions it would not normally authorize. The stolen funds are ultimately transferred to criminal associates outside the United States…