An Ohio resident has admitted guilt to possessing equipment used for creating fraudulent credit cards, following his arrest in Mississippi earlier this year.
Sean Matthew Langston, Jr., 33, of Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty last week to one count of illegal possession, production, or trafficking in device-making equipment with intent to defraud. He was arrested on April 28, 2024, during a traffic stop in Rankin County. Authorities found Langston and his co-defendant, John Carleton Johnson, Jr., with approximately 322 gift cards, seventeen reencoded instruments containing stolen bank card data, and two magnetic stripe encoding devices. Surveillance footage showed both men at several retail stores across the Jackson metropolitan area using cloned instruments to purchase gift cards.
Langston faces up to 15 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on April 14, 2026. The final sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
A federal grand jury indicted Langston and Johnson on February 20, 2025. Johnson pleaded guilty on June 30, 2025. He was sentenced on November 3, 2025, to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
“United States Attorney Baxter Kruger of the Southern District of Mississippi, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Patrick Davis, and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch made the announcement.”
The investigation was conducted by the United States Secret Service, Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation through their partnership in the Cyber Fraud Task Force. The Mississippi Highway Patrol and Flowood Police Department also assisted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly T. Purdie is prosecuting the case.
