Three people were charged in connection with a credit card scheme after officers found hundreds of credit cards and nearly a dozen identification cards while conducting an unrelated search warrant.
Eva Castellanos and Martin Romero were charged with establishing a financial forgery lab and using another person’s ID after police searched their Las Vegas apartment Sept. 17 when arresting Romero for breaking probation on previous armed robbery charges, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report for the pair.
Detectives discovered laminating equipment, blank checks, forged documents, IDs for 11 people and more than 200 credit and debit cards in different names inside the unit, which was located near the intersection of West Desert Inn Road and South Decatur Boulevard, according to the arrest report.
Castellanos and Romero were arrested after barricading themselves in the residence along with Ruben Sapien for over an hour.
Romero was charged with establishing a financial forgery lab, violation of parole and 10 counts of possession of another person’s ID to commit forgery. He is being held without bail pending a hearing Tuesday.
He has a prior conviction in District Court from 2019 for robbery, kidnapping and impersonating an officer, and earlier that year he was charged in Las Vegas Justice Court with 15 counts of obtaining a credit card without the cardholder’s consent, but the charges were dropped, according to court records.
Castellanos was charged with establishing a financial forgery lab and 10 counts of possession of another person’s ID to commit forgery. She was released after posting $10,000 bail and is expected to appear in court again Tuesday.
Castellanos was convicted in 2018 for attempted theft and sentenced to six months in the Clark County Detention Center, according to court records. She also pleaded guilty this month to fraudulent use of a credit card and is scheduled for sentencing in January.
Sapien was charged with providing a false statement to obstruct police and was released with a hearing scheduled for Nov. 16.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at [email protected] or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
