Tarjeteros

April 21, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In December 2012, eight young men from Yonkers, New York, most of them immigrants from the Dominican Republic, walked up to ATMs across Manhattan and began withdrawing cash. They kept going for two and a half hours. By the time they stopped, they had pulled $382,000 from machines all over the city. Two months later, they did it again, this time for an entire night. The haul was $2.8 million—one of the largest bank robberies in New York City history. They did it without a single gun or mask. They did it with a single debit card.

The Tarjeteros

Alberto Yussi Lahud Peña was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Yonkers as a teenager. After high school, he worked basic jobs—cashier, delivery—but he thought of himself as clever, and he spent a lot of time online. In 2012, in his early 20s, he found his way to the dark web, where he spotted an ad: "Looking for reliable people for ATM runs. No experience required." He answered it.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:04) **Setting the Stage: Yonkers and the Dominican Dream** - The episode introduces Yonkers, NY, a hub for Dominican immigrants, and the three archetypes of people who move from the DR: dreamers, hustlers, and strugglers.
2 (03:36) **Introducing Alberto Yussi Lahud Peña** - The main character, a Dominican immigrant in Yonkers, is introduced as a clever but struggling teenager who gravitates toward other DR immigrants.
3 (05:40) **Discovering the Dark Web and the Casher Ad** - In his early 20s, Alberto finds the dark web and spots an ad for "ATM runs," which introduces him to the world of cashing stolen cards.
4 (08:15) **The Concept of "Tarjeteros" and the Unlimited Card** - Alberto learns about "tarjeteros" (card guys) in the DR and is recruited by a mysterious online supplier for a job involving a practically unlimited debit card.
5 (10:40) **Building the Crew** - Alberto and Elvis recruit six more guys from their high school and bus-driving circles, forming an eight-man team of young Dominican hustlers with no serious criminal records.
6 (14:27) **The First Heist: December 21, 2012** - The crew executes their plan on a Friday night in December, hitting ATMs across Manhattan for 2.5 hours.
7 (18:49) **The Haul and the Romania Delivery** - The crew pulls out $382,000 in 2.5 hours, and the boss demands a delivery of roughly half the cash to Bucharest, Romania.

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Show Notes

In the streets of the Dominican Republic, a new economy thrives in the shadows. It’s built not on tourism or sugar, but on stolen data. They call them tarjeteros. And they are making a lot of money from stolen credit cards. This is a story about one group of tarjeteros who came to the US, and let loose on New York city.

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