San Marcos police say they have uncovered a multi-state credit card fraud scheme, extending from Michigan to California and Central Texas.

Investigators say the men behind the scheme were caught near Interstate 35 at a Best Buy in San Marcos -- Hector Gomez, 37, and Gabriel Rivas, 31, both Mexican nationals, were arrested.

Last Thursday, a Michigan man called the Best Buy and told his credit card was used at the store. Police say Gomez and Rivas returned to the store the next day to make additional purchases, and that's when they were arrested.

Investigators discovered in a Hummer that was rented from San Antonio more than 50 fake credit cards and more than $27,000 worth of electronics and jewelry.

Investigators say it could be just the tip of the iceberg. They feel that once the investigation is complete, the total amount stolen could be hundreds of times more.

"This is a very detailed investigation. There's a lot of work to be done," said Terry Nichols, San Marcos police commander. "Dating back for the past several years they could have been doing this. If we can go back and track back and go back and track back work with merchants to identify these suspects making purchases and then going to credit card companies and seeing if there's fraudulent activity dating back years, we could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Nichols says this isn’t the first time the suspects have stolen in San Marcos. In fact, they made at least five trips to San Marcos and Central Texas in recent months.

SMPD

Gabriel Rivas

SMPD

Hector Gomez

“These two suspects fly up regularly from Mexico into San Antonio and rent cars, then go on their shopping sprees. They take some of the property back with them on the plane and it sounds like they ship the property back on the same flight they return on,” he said.

Electronics recovered included laptops, movies, electronic games, MP3 players, cameras and a television. Much of the merchandise had been bought at Best Buy stores in San Marcos and Austin. Clothes were bought at the outlet stores in San Marcos.

Both men were jailed in the Hays County on bonds totaling $310,000. So far San Marcos police have identified two other people in California whose credit cards have been used.