RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – A Ohio man pled guilty on June 30 to illegally possessing magnetic stripe credit card encoding devices.

According to court documents, John Carleton Johnson, Jr., 32, of Canal Winchester, Ohio, was arrested in Rankin County in April 2024 following a traffic stop. He was found to be in possession of 322 gift cards, 17 reencoded instruments containing stolen bank card data and two magstripe encoding devices.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Johnson and his co-defendant could be seen on CCTV footage at various retail stores throughout the Jackson metropolitan area purchasing gift cards with known cloned instruments.

Johnson pled guilty to one count of possession or trafficking of device-making equipment with intent to defraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 23, 2025, and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

The United States Secret Service, Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are investigating the case through their partnership in the Cyber Fraud Task Force with assistance from the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Flowood Police Department.