In September, Fairfax County police charged a Franklin Farm teen-ager with six crimes — three drug offenses, two credit-card crimes and one obstruction of justice. Since then, four have been dropped, but two are going to the grand jury.
The suspect is Alexander Robles, 18, of 13434 Elevation Lane. In a Sept. 30 affidavit for a search warrant to seek illegally purchased goods in his home, police Det. Cindy Lundberg noted that police reportedly found some of these items in Robles' home when they executed the warrant.
On Sept. 9, a citizen reported that he'd lost his wallet — containing several credit cards and cash — while walking in his neighborhood. He then began calling his credit-card companies to cancel his cards. But when he called to cancel his VISA card, he was told that someone had fraudulently used it at the Best Buy store in the Fair Lakes Shopping Center.
"INVESTIGATION REVEALED that the suspect used the stolen credit card to purchase numerous compact discs, digital video discs and PlayStation games for a total of $322.76," wrote Lundberg. "The suspect then went to Tweeter sound systems store [in] Fairfax and attempted to use the card to purchase over $600 worth of car stereo equipment."
However, VISA denied this transaction, and the suspect left the store. According to Lundberg, the store manager gave police a description of the suspect and the vehicle he was driving. Later, wrote the detective, the Tweeter store manager identified Robles as allegedly "being the person who attempted to use the stolen credit card."
Lundberg also viewed surveillance video from the Best Buy store and wrote that it showed "Alexander Robles exiting the store after the fraudulent transaction. He was [reportedly] carrying a bag containing compact discs, digital video discs and PlayStation games."
Police arrested him, Sept. 30, in connection with these crimes. They'd also charged him, earlier that month, with other offenses. On Sept. 10, they charged Robles with obstruction of justice and drug conspiracy.
On Sept. 17, police charged him with two counts of the manufacture and distribution of a controlled substance. Then on Sept. 30, they charged him with credit-card theft and credit-card fraud in connection with the incidents at Best Buy and Tweeter.
Last Wednesday, Feb. 4, in General District Court, four of his charges — obstruction of justice, one of the drug-manufacturing charges, credit-card theft and drug conspiracy — were dropped. However, Judge Donald McDonough certified the other drug-manufacturing charge, along with the charge of credit-card fraud, to the grand jury for possible indictment.