Venezuelan Gang Tied To ATM Heists

Two Venezuelan men got long federal prison terms for a cash-stealing scheme that exposed how easy ATMs can still be turned into cash machines for criminals.

Quick Take

Federal prosecutors said Carlos Javier Padron and Oddry Arnoldo Cabrera Torrealba helped deploy Ploutus malware on ATMs.^[3]
Both men pleaded guilty and each received 78 months in prison.^[3]
The Justice Department said the network tied to them had links to Tren de Aragua.^[1]^[2]
Restitution in the case totaled $1,537,696 for victim banks.^[3]

What Federal Prosecutors Said

The Justice Department said Padron, 36, and Cabrera Torrealba, 37, were part of a coordinated criminal network that used malware to force ATMs to dispense cash.^[3] Prosecutors said the Ploutus malware was installed on machines in person and then used to send commands to the cash dispensing module. The department also said the malware was built to delete signs of itself, which made the scheme harder to spot.^[3]

That detail matters because this was not a simple theft from a lone machine. Federal filings described a wider pattern of ATM jackpotting, where crews combine physical access with software intrusion to drain cash from older machines without using a customer account.^[21]^[23] The Federal Bureau of Investigation says this type of crime has surged, with an estimated 700 instances and more than $20 million in losses in 2025 alone.^[21]

Why The Case Got So Much Attention

The Justice Department linked the case to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal group that U.S. officials have treated as a growing transnational threat.^[1]^[2] That connection raised the stakes beyond ordinary bank fraud. It also fit a broader federal picture in which organized crews use the same playbook across state lines, take the money quickly, and then spread the proceeds through larger criminal networks.^[6]^[11]

Townhall and the Justice Department both reported that the men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank burglary and computer fraud.^[1]^[3] The court also ordered them to pay restitution to multiple victim banks.^[3] While the filings describe a serious and organized scheme, the public record here centers on the defendants’ guilty pleas and the government’s account of how the malware worked. It does not include a detailed public rebuttal from the defendants.^[3]

What The Sentences Signal

Padron received 78 months in prison, and Cabrera Torrealba received the same sentence on June 11.^[3] For banks, the case is another reminder that ATM security is no longer just about locks and cameras. Security guidance from federal and industry sources says criminals often need only brief physical access to install malware, which can let them bypass normal protections and empty a machine in minutes.^[19]^[20]

Today, the FBI and DOJ announced that Carlos Javier Padron was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for his role in a nationwide ATM jackpotting scheme. His co-defendant, Oddry Arnoldo Cabrera Torrealba, was sentenced on June 11 to 6.5 years in prison. Padron and Torrealba were part… pic.twitter.com/VlE8iVRCGb

— FBI Cyber Division (@FBICyberDiv) June 26, 2026

The case also shows how frustrated many Americans have become with a system that seems slow to protect basic financial infrastructure. Whether the focus is public safety, border enforcement, or bank security, the core concern is the same: organized crews keep finding weak spots while institutions race to catch up.^[21]^[26] Federal officials say the investigation disrupted a wider network, but the scale of the problem suggests ATM jackpotting is still far from over.^[2]^[6]