Crooks used ice cream truck to move stolen diesel in $3.4M scam: prosecutors


More than two dozen people and four companies were charged in a multimillion-dollar diesel fuel scam, New Jersey authorities announced Thursday.

At least 25 suspects operating across five states — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts — netted at least $3.4 million from the enterprise over a period of a little more than a year, according to a news release from the state attorney general’s office.

Stolen credit card information was used to purchase tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, which was resold to trucking companies and other fuel providers.

The cards were cloned, the release states. Law enforcement recovered roughly 500 of the cards while making arrests in the case.

The fuel was then delivered to customers in vehicles “clearly not designed to lawfully transport fuel,” including an ice cream truck, according to the release.

These deliveries were often made under the cover of darkness and paid for in cash and checks to shell corporations, or via an unspecified payment app.

The enterprise’s primary customer was Glotrac Builders LLC, a truck lot in Newark, which forked over approximately $2.88 million for stolen fuel. Three other companies, Filpo Trucking Corp, A&A Truck Center Corp. and Kalle Trucking, LLC., were also implicated in the investigation.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin referred to it in the release as a “sophisticated system.”

State investigators in Platkin’s office were tipped off to the skimming scheme in October 2023 by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and Gloucester Township Police Department.

They found that card information was stolen using “skimmers,” small devices illegally planted on ATMs and gas pumps to record the information on credit and debit cards.

The enterprise’s members possessed master keys allowing them to unlock gas pumps and surreptitiously install the skimmers. It was unclear from the release how the keys were obtained.

At least 2,033 different victims had their card information stolen at the pumps between Jan. 1, 2023, and July 20, 2024, according to the news release.

All 25 defendants are charged with first-degree racketeering, with some facing additional charges
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https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2025...34m-scam-prosecutors.html?outputType=amp

Sounds like they had a good scam going. (until they got nailed, of course)