City police Det. Bob Gauthier shows off more than 1,000 credit cards and equipment used in a counterfeiting operation. (Clara Ho, Sun Media)

Police have shut down a massive counterfeit credit- card operation, with four people now facing charges.

"This is quite a substantial seizure, the biggest one I've ever seen here," said Det. Bob Gauthier with the Edmonton Police Service's economic crimes unit.

Police said they stopped a vehicle in west Edmonton on June 28 after they noticed it had a stolen licence plate.

After police arrested two occupants, a 31-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman, they searched the vehicle and seized nearly 100 counterfeit credit cards, counterfeit driver's licences, a credit bureau report, a small amount of methamphetamine, and several receipts.

Police said another woman, a 22-year-old, was allegedly part of the operation and officers searched her two-bedroom apartment suite at 100 Avenue and 117 Street.

There, police said they found state-of-the-art computer equipment, machines and tools required to manufacture credit cards, identification and cheques, including blank cards, an embossing machine, gold foils, and magnetic strips.

More than 1,000 credit cards in different stages of counterfeiting and thousands of electronic credit card numbers were discovered.

Police said laptops, big screen TVs, and about 60 other items purchased with stolen credit-card data were found within the suite.

Cops also located a safe containing additional counterfeit credit cards, a credit -card imprinter, a counterfeit Canada Post key, and stolen computer equipment.

Gauthier said the stolen credit-card data was probably either bought online from hackers or swiped from hard drives obtained at businesses that the culprits broke into, including one in Edmonton.

Each card used rang up a tab of $800 to $1,000, Gauthier estimated, adding it's a financial burden banks and financial institutions will likely have to bear.

"We know (the seizure) doesn't shut these things down. It's like a drug deal, you take off one and there's many more doing the job," Gauthier said.

"But this one's going to slow things down for a while because we do have a large seizure of all the equipment used to make these."

Gauthier said the new chip technology in credit cards has also put a dent in the "lucrative business" of selling counterfeit cards, though the perpetrators will soon catch up with the technology in their operations.

Gauthier urges members of the public to keep their personal identification pieces safe and to regularly check banking and credit-card statements to monitor unusual activity. He also hopes to see more businesses asking for ID when credit cards are used.

Andrew David Stuebing, 31, and Kyla Susanne Peters, 20, were each charged with five counts of possession of stolen property under $5,000, possession of a controlled substance, three counts of unlawful use of credit-card data, and unlawful use of a counterfeit stamp.

Brittany Erickson, 22, and Kristina Louise Dawson, 23, were charged with possession of instruments for forgery, possession of a forged or falsified credit card, unauthorized use of credit-card data, possesion of property obtained by crime, possession of a controlled substance and making, having or dealing in instruments for forging or falsifying credit cards.

Erickson was also charged with two counts of use and possession of a counterfeit credit card and two counts of use or trafficking a forged or falsified credit card.

CLARA.HO@SUNMEDIA.CA