Man who slipped house arrest in Las Vegas captured in Jamaica

By Brian Nordli

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013 | 3:58 p.m.

A fugitive wanted on racketeering and organized crime charges in connection with an alleged identity theft and credit card fraud scheme was captured in Jamaica after he escaped from house arrest in Las Vegas earlier this year, authorities said.

Jermaine Anthony Smith, 32, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was initially arrested earlier this year and placed on house arrest. But he removed an electronic tracking device in July and fled to Jamaica, according to officials with Jamaica’s Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force.

Smith allegedly was involved in a cybercrime, racketeering and money laundering scheme known as carder.su, according to a news release from the task force and distributed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The scheme affected multiple countries in Europe, Asia, North America and South America, task force officials alleged.

Smith was captured Nov. 26 with a forged U.S. passport under a different name at a business in Kingston, Jamaica, officials said.

He will appear in Jamaica’s Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on charges of forgery and uttering forged documents, officials said.

Task force investigators suspect that Smith has laundered more than $6 million in Jamaican currency through local banks since August, authorities said.

The task force was working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service to address an active U.S. warrant for Smith, officials said.