Montgomery Township Police Photo by James Short.
Police said suspect was passenger in vehicle linked to regional theft investigation
Two Columbus, OH men were taken into custody in Montgomery Township after police said they were involved in thefts from vehicles and attempted to purchase items with stolen credit cards.
Police said one suspect was wanted on active out-of-state warrants.
Zakaria M. Mohamed, 24, of the 2400 block of Westford Place, and Ladane Abdul-Wahab Yusuaf, 22, of the 4100 block of Keffer Road, were arrested Thursday after Montgomery Township Police located a silver Toyota Camry that had been flagged by automatic license plate readers in connection with a theft investigation originating in Upper Merion Township, according to a criminal complaint.
Mohamed is charged with three felony counts of conspiracy attempted access device fraud, three misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to possess a counterfeit access device, two misdemeanor counts of possessing a counterfeit access device, misdemeanor receiving stolen property, and two counts of misdemeanor theft, per court records.
Yusuaf is charged with three felony counts of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, three misdmeanor counts of possession of a counterfeit access device, and misdemeanor counts of theft from a motor vehicle, theft, receiving stolen property, altering or forging vehicle registration, according to charging documents.
Police said Upper Merion officers alerted surrounding departments about a vehicle allegedly involved in thefts from vehicles at an LA Fitness location, including the use of stolen credit cards.
The vehicle, described as a silver Toyota Camry bearing a Pennsylvania temporary tag, triggered a license plate reader alert as it entered Montgomery Township, court documents said.
An officer conducted a check of the temporary registration and determined the tag was fraudulent, returning no records, according to the affidavit. The vehicle was later detected by another license plate reader in Hilltown Township before returning toward Montgomery Township.
Around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, officers located the vehicle in traffic on Bethlehem Pike near Route 202 and stopped it, police said. The driver was identified as Yusuaf, and the passenger was identified as Mohamed.
After both were detained by police, officers removed a Ford key fob and a wallet containing multiple gift cards, which police said are commonly purchased during credit card frauds.
"As we continued our investigation, in plain view on the passenger side floorboard was two credit cards belonging to a different person other than either of them," police wrote in the affidavit.
Police said at 6:08 p.m., a victim from LA Fitness wanted to report his Ford key fob was stolen from his locker at the gym and then multiple credit cards were stolen from inside his car in the parking lot.
Officers responded and confirmed that the victim's credit cards were the ones in plain view on the floorboard of the Toyota, police said.
The victim reported that three different credit cards were attempted to be used at Walmart in Hilltown Township, per the affidavit.
Each card was swiped attempiing to make a purchase of $507.84 for a tofal of §1,523.52, police said.
During the investigation, officers discovered Mohamed had two active arrest warrants with extradition to Pennsylvania, according to the complaint.
One warrant was issued out of DuPage County, Illinois, for failure to appear on a burglary charge. The second was issued out of Montgomery County, Ohio, for a probation violation related to receiving stolen property, police said.
Because the warrants originated outside Pennsylvania and were confirmed for extradition, Mohamed was charged as a fugitive from justice and taken into custody.
Court records indicate he was charged with arrest prior to requisition, a felony under Pennsylvania law.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
