14 DAY TRIAL // 40-year-old Guo Xing Chen was arrested on December 12, 2013, after using stolen payment cards to purchase gift cards and iPads at a couple of Target stores in Texas. Initially, authorities believed he might have been involved in the data breach suffered by the retailer last year.
Chen was arrested at a Starbucks shortly after Target staff notified police that stolen payment cards had been used to purchase gift cards. Chen and another man had dumped some stolen cards in the restroom of a sandwich shop just before he was arrested, CBS reports.
He was arrested because he was wanted for credit or debit card abuse in Arkansas. At the time, police noted that he might have been linked to the Target data breach, in which 40 million payment cards had been compromised.
However, earlier this week, Georgetown police told the press that there was no evidence that the suspect had anything to do with the cyberattack.
“It is not believed he was responsible for the initiation of the breach at Target,” the police department said, clarifying that this was a “street-level arrest.”
In fact, the origin of the fraudulent payment card information used by Chen is unclear at this point.
The US Department of Justice says it’s determined to track down the individuals who breached the systems of Target. However, authorities admit that it could take years, if not even longer, to bring the perpetrators to justice.