Officials launched an investigation into suspicious banking transactions and detained the suspect after receiving information from Latvian police that a six-digit amount of cash had been illegally withdrawn from various ATMs in Riga overnight. The police also has information about illegal cash withdrawals in Estonia, according to the news release.
The suspect was detained at an ATM in Universiteto Street, in the Old Town of Vilnius, on Saturday after police received a report about possibly illegal transactions at different ATMs in the capital. The man, who had many payment cards and a significant amount of euros in his wallet, was taken to a police station.
The police established that the 31-year-old Russian national had flown from Riga to Vilnius the day before and found a ticket for a flight from the Lithuanian capital to Warsaw in his belongings.
According to the police, the man had booked rooms in hotels in different areas of the capital. His personal belongings and a computer with special software and accessories for uploading stolen personal data to a payment card were found during a search of his hotel room in Konstitucijos Avenue.
The Russian national had a total of 50 fake payment cards and almost 27,000 euros, which he had apparently stolen from various ATMs in a short period of time.
A court on Sunday issued a three-month arrest warrant for the suspect.
Under the Lithuanian Criminal Code, the man may face up to eight years in prison.