Authorities rounding up Mailbox Meth Gang members

<p>Federal, state and local authorities in north Georgia are tracking down a group of thieves who have been using identities stolen from mailboxes to obtain money for methamphetamine.</p><p>Already, 20 members of the group authorities call the "Mailbox Meth Gang" have been arrested in Forsyth, Lumpkin and Dawson counties in north Georgia and charged with fraud, identity theft and methamphetamine-related offenses.</p><p>Eleven arrests have been made in Forsyth County in the last two weeks and more arrests are expected, said Forsyth County Sheriff's Investigator Jeff Roe.</p><p>One branch of the gang apparently altered and forged checks and another group focused on credit card theft.</p><p>Some "runners" in the gang would drive through subdivisions looking for raised red flags on mailboxes. They also would look in mailboxes after mail carriers had passed through, Roe said. In either case, they would steal checks, bank statements and preapproved credit card applications.</p><p>Investigators still don't know how big the network is, said Forsyth Sheriff's Capt. Mark Hoffman.</p><p>Authorities say 65,000 credit card numbers were found in a laptop computer seized in a raid last month in Lumpkin County. The U.S. Secret Service has confirmed that 14,000 numbers belong to real people, according a Lumpkin County news release.</p><p>The valid credit card numbers have been traced to Gwinnett, Cherokee and Hall counties in Georgia and to victims in North Carolina, California and Texas.</p><p>The computer also contained several samples of driver's licenses for a number of states. The samples could be reproduced and used to cash bogus checks.</p><p>In mid-June, Lumpkin County businesses reported a rash of counterfeit money being passed, said Lumpkin County Sheriff's Capt. Jason Stover. Secret Service officers were brought in, and on June 21 they recovered the laptop computer.</p><p>Several cases will be presented to the U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta next week, Forsyth County sheriff's detectives said.</p><p>Many of the accused are hooked on methamphetamine and are believed to have stolen credit cards and checks to support their drug habit, Stover said.</p><p>Rita Whitley of Cumming and her boyfriend, Paul Weisner, were arrested in June in a parking lot in an undercover sting, Stover said. She was charged with identity theft and possession of methamphetamine, and Weisner was charged with obstruction and possession of a firearm by a felon.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc1c0)</p>

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