Federal agents struggle with a man they say became ‘combative’ when they moved him to a holding cell at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. Agents say they caught him carrying 15 stolen credit and debit cards when he arrived on a flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica.
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations
A man is in federal custody after U.S. Customs agents say he arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on a flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica, carrying a bag full of stolen credit and debit cards Monday.
The 15 cards were found in a cross-body bag Mardoche Petit-Phare, 59, was carrying during a Customs check after he landed, according to a Homeland Security Investigations complaint filed in court Tuesday.
HSI and Secret Service agents tried questioning Petit-Phare after reading him his rights, but he refused to talk, the complaint states.
Agents searching his phone found photographs of driver’s licenses that had Petit-Phare’s picture, but other people’s names and biographical information, according to the complaint. There were also photographs of other people’s credit cards and checks, including U.S. Treasury checks, agents say.
Credit and debit cards federal agents say were stolen are displayed on a table at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. Homeland Security Investigations
Agents contacted several people whose cards Petit-Phare had in his bag, and they said they never met him, and they had reported fraudulent charges on their cards. Investigators found thousands of fraudulent transactions were made at hotels and resorts in Montego Bay in August using some of the cards, and more than $1,000 in transactions were attempted using a stolen MyWalgreens credit card in St. Andrew, Jamaica, according to the complaint.
When agents were moving Petit-Phare to a holding cell Monday, he became “combative” with them, and they restrained him using handcuffs and leg restraints, the complaint states.
Petit-Phare faces a charge of possessing 15 or more unauthorized access devices. A federal judge Tuesday ordered him detained until trial, court records show.
Miami Herald
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.