Hardeeville cops stopped them for speeding. Drug, credit card skimming charges followed

A routine traffic stop Wednesday morning on I-95 ended with two men — one of whom was previously “involved with smuggling Cubans into the United States”— facing a variety of charges from both Hardeeville police and the FBI, authorities say.

Ricardo Rodriguez Espinosa, 43, and Yunier Rodriguez, 31, were charged by Hardeeville police with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and by the FBI with conspiracy and possession of a “skimming” device designed to capture credit card numbers and related data, according to documents from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Espinosa also faces a traffic infraction charged filed by the Hardeeville police.

He was driving 13 miles over the speed limit when Hardeeville police pulled him over around 9:15 a.m., the documents said.

Officers used a K-9 to search the vehicle and found cocaine and methamphetamine, credit card skimming devices, keys officials think are gas pump master keys, and gas pump safety seals used to identify gas pump tampering, a Hardeeville release said.

Authorities believe the skimming devices were designed to be installed on the interior of gas pumps to obtain credit card information from customers, the documents said. The the anti-tampering stickers the men had were thought to be used to replace the ones they damaged so customers wouldn’t realized the device had been tampered with.

Espinosa and Rodriguez, who are related by marriage, both had temporary Florida driver’s licenses and told authorities they were from Cuba, the documents said.

The men said they were traveling from Miami around the United States to places such as New York and Washington D.C., to help family members with paperwork related to their residency status, the documents said.

Authorities later found out the men weren’t U.S. citizens and that Espinosa had previously been “involved with smuggling Cubans into the United States,” the documents said. Rodriguez did not have an alien number, passport, or visa.

Espinosa and Rodriguez were booked into the Jasper County Detention Center with bonds of $50,000, according to documents.