On Monday, the Secret Service announced the arrests and indictments of four Cubans, on charges of aggravated identity theft, counterfeit credit card trafficking, and conspiracy. They were identified as Miguel Alegria, 46, of Hialeh, Florida; Raynier Pupo, 22, of Miami; Ariel Montero, 32, of Aventura; and Javier Padron-Bravo, 35, also of Aventura.

The Florida operation -- which is said to have counterfeited some 200,000 credit cards -- was only part of an international outfit linked by an online payment company named E-Gold.

E-Gold Investigation

E-Gold, which has offices in Melbourne, Florida, allows users to convert currency into equivalent amounts of gold and silver. The precious metals are stored in European and Middle Eastern banks. In April, the principal owners were indicted for letting E-Gold be used by criminals engaged in financial scams and child pornography.

That case was a joint operation between the Secret Service, the FBI, and the IRS. The Secret Service said that Julio Lopez, 30, was sending a large amount of money via E-Gold accounts to known Internet criminals in Eastern Europe in return for thousands of stolen credit card account numbers.

The numbers received from the Eastern Europeans were used to counterfeit credit cards in several manufacturing plants in southern Florida. The Secret Service said that the ring had been responsible for fraud losses amounting to more than $75 million.

The larger Florida crime ring was discovered by the Secret Service because of its investigation of Lopez, also known as "Blinky." Lopez and his girlfriend, 26-year-old Anett Villar, had been arrested in a joint operation between the Secret Service's Miami and Nashville Field Offices, in what the agency described as "an online carding investigation." Blinky's arrest led the Secret Service to evidence of the larger ring.

Global Damage

Special Agent in Charge William Sims of the Miami Field Office said that the case shows that online criminals can "inflict significant damage on a global scale," but that Internet criminals should be aware that "law enforcement will continue to pursue them wherever they are."

The Secret Service said that the arrests and indictments were only one example of its "cyber-initiatives" to fight financial fraud and identity theft.

Some of these initiatives include disrupting activity on "criminal Web forums," where a variety of valuable, stolen information is sold -- including false identity documents, malicious software, and credit card numbers.