[ISN] Giga-Biter In Obstruction Charge

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0302101flash1.html

The Smoking Gun
MARCH 2, 2010

In a bold and bizarre attempt to destroy evidence seized during 
a federal raid, a New York City man grabbed a flash drive and swallowed 
the data storage device while in the custody of Secret Service agents, 
records show. Florin Necula ingested the Kingston flash drive shortly 
after his January 21 arrest outside a bank in Queens, according to U.S. 
District Court filings. Necula and several codefendants had been 
transported to a Secret Service office in Brooklyn, where they were to 
be questioned and processed. While there, and in the view of 
investigators, Necula "grabbed Subject Flash Drive 2, which had been on 
his person at the time of his arrest, and swallowed," Agent Joseph 
Borger noted in the below February 25 search warrant affidavit. When 
Necula was unable to pass the item after about four days, 
doctors--concerned that the drive was not compatible with the suspect's 
GI tract--concluded he "would be injured if they allowed the flash drive 
to remain inside of him," reported Borger. Necula eventually agreed to 
allow doctors at New York Downtown Hospital to remove the item, 
according to a source familiar with the incident. A Kingston executive 
said it was unclear if stomach acid could damage one of their drives. 
"As you might imagine, we have no actual experience with someone 
swallowing a USB," Mike Sager wrote in an e-mail to TSG. In return for 
swallowing the storage device, Necula was charged with obstruction of 
justice, one of four felonies detailed in an indictment returned in 
late-January. Prosecutors allege that Necula and three other men placed 
card readers over ATM slots to "skim" magnetic strip information off 
cards inserted in those machines. After Necula and his codefendants were 
busted, agents recovered laptops, cameras, flash drives, and cell phones 
from the men (and at a Long Island City apartment). Necula is currently 
being held without bail at a Queens jail. (4 pages)


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