Air traveler jailed in ID theft

Agents: Man had dozens of illegal credit cards

Security workers at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport suspected something was odd when the carryon luggage of a passenger contained 65 credit cards — in another person’s name.

Transportation Security Administration agents made the discovery Friday when Jason LeClerc Tout-Puissant passed through a TSA checkpoint while heading for a flight to New York, according to a Broward Sheriff ’s Office arrest report.

Tout-Puissant, 24, initially said the cards belonged to his girlfriend. However, a further examination of Tout-Puissant’s luggage turned up two credit card readers/ encoders, a laptop computer and more than $10,000 worth of high-end purses purchased from a TJ Maxx store, the report said.

Later, a detective from the Economic Crimes Unit of the Sheriff’s Office used a card reader and determined that more than 60 of the credit cards in Tout-Puissant’s possession were embossed with real names and account numbers, according to the report. An employee of the credit union that issued the cards verified that they were linked to active accounts, investigators said.

Additionally, two of the seven credit cards found in Tout-Puissant’s wallet were counterfeit, the arrest report said.

Tout-Puissant, who has addresses in Plantation and Rosedale, N.Y., was charged with 60 counts of passing forged or altered credit cards, trafficking in counterfeit credit cards, theft of personal identification and possession of tools for reviving or selling credit card machine plates.

He was released from a Broward jail after posting bonds totaling $66,750, records show.