Two men from Venezuela have been accused of working with others to steal more than $81,000 from ATM machines over a four-day period. The group allegedly stole money from numerous machines, including ones located in Herculaneum and Festus, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported.
Berny Alberson Meza-Rojas, 22, and Anthony Brijan Sorondo, 31, were indicted June 4 with one count of conspiracy to commit bank larceny. The two pleaded not guilty to the charge on June 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, according to court documents.
The conspiracy charge is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
As of Monday, June 9, the two were being held at the Jefferson County Jail in Hillsboro, according to jail records.
According to the indictment, Meza-Rojas, Sorondo and others traveled from Illinois to Missouri to steal money from ATMs. The group used a technique called “jackpotting,” which allows someone to take control of an ATM and have the machine dispense money without completing a legal transaction.
On March 27, the group allegedly stole more than $11,000 from ATMs in Herculaneum and Bloomsdale. Between March 29-30, the group also stole more than $70,000 from ATMs in Festus, O’Fallon, Ste. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau, the indictment said.
Meza-Rojas was allegedly spotted in a surveillance video in a Jeep Cherokee that was seen at ATM machines when money was stolen, and he was later stopped while driving the SUV in Chicago. A wireless keyboard used to tamper with ATMs was found in the Cherokee, according to court documents.
A Volkswagen Jetta, registered to Sorondo, also was allegedly seen in the surveillance video following the Cherokee at the ATM machines. The two men also were identified by an employee at a Maryland Heights motel as being guests at the location during that time, court records said.
The group also is suspected of stealing from ATM machines in Iowa in April and Kentucky in May, according to court documents.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has requested both men be held in jail due to allegedly entering the country illegally. According to court papers, Sorondo entered the U.S. at the border in southern Texas in 2022, and Meza-Rojas entered the same way in 2023.
The two men claim to live in Chicago, but neither is known to own property, maintain employment or live with anyone lawfully present in the U.S., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The case was investigated by the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, police departments in O’Fallon, Cape Girardeau, Festus, St. Charles County and Ste. Genevieve and the Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff's Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf is prosecuting the case.