An illegal immigrant is facing up to two decades in prison after he was arrested for stealing and reselling diesel fuel around metro Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Yasser Pacheco, 44, remains in Kent County Jail with a detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a monthslong investigation by the Kent County Sheriff’s Office into purchases of diesel fuel with stolen financial information, WOOD reported.
Court documents allege the scheme involved credit card skimmers used to steal financial information that was later embedded in recycled gift cards that were used to purchase diesel fuel at stations across Michigan.
The card skimmers “were placed at general gas stations all over the state and likely out of state, too,” Undersheriff Scott Dietrich told WOOD. “The businesses (victimized) used fuel cards at any gas station whenever they needed to fuel up.”
“Yasser would then use the stolen financial information to purchase large quantities of diesel fuel at multiple locations across the state of Michigan, including Kent County,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
The scam allegedly involved modified Ford F-250 and Dodge pickups with 150-200 gallon auxiliary tanks Pacheco and others used to fuel up and deliver the diesel to clients at parking lots and truck stops at a steep discount.
Across metro Grand Rapids, diesel fuel carted in tanks aboard pickup trucks was sold at deep discounts – thousands of gallons, records show. The fuel was bought with stolen info, and Yasser Pacheco, in the U.S. illegally, was behind it, records show. He faces multiple charges. pic.twitter.com/1JOjpluT2x
— John Hogan (@JohnHoganWOOD) March 3, 2026
Court records allege financial information stolen from fuel cards used by Kent Power Inc., an electrical utility contractor, was used to purchase $26,000 in diesel fuel. Investigators estimate Pacheco scammed “a minimum of $57,000 in under three months,” though “it is unknown what he made in cash payments and what the total illegal profit was,” according to the television station.
“As Yasser was not paying for this fuel himself, he was making 100 % profit off of these illegal transactions,” the probable cause affidavit reads.
Detectives in Kent County documented stolen diesel sales at a truck stop parking lot in Holland, a factory parking lot in Kentwood, and the Rogers Plaza parking lot in Wyoming, where they “watched as (Pacheco) pulled his white pickup to a parked semi-truck and began pumping fuel directly from his auxiliary tank into the semi-truck,” according to court records cited by WOOD.
At least one client, who purchased more than 53,000 gallons of diesel to resell, also faces felony charges, while officials believe a third man suspected of coordinating resales fled to Florida.
During a search of Pacheco’s Flint home, authorities recovered $32,000 in cash, gift cards with stolen financial information, and flash drives with data from card skimmers, WOOD reports.
Kent County booking information for Pacheco shows he was arrested on Nov. 17 and remains in custody at the county jail with a detainer from ICE, though it’s unclear what country he is from.
He faces a 20-year felony for conducting a criminal enterprise, as well as assaulting or resisting an officer, and assaulting or resisting an officer causing injury.
Pacheco attempted to flee in handcuffs during his arrest in Kentwood, where he jumped a fence and ran along I-196 before he was tackled by officers, according to WOOD.
Pacheco is among scores of illegal immigrant criminals arrested by federal agents amid the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, initiated as promised by President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term.
Just last week, a different Kent County Sheriff’s investigation resulted in at least 10 illegal immigrants apprehended across multiple states for their roles in a South American Theft Group that targeted West Michigan business owners in 2024.
The arrests stem in part from a investigation into a December 2024 burglary at a home in Cascade Township while the owners were at work, a crime that investigators later tied to the multi-state burglary ring, the department said in a bulletin.
Those involved allegedly swiped about $266,369 in cash, jewelry and other valuables in Cascade Township, as well as about $50,000 to $60,000 in valuables from a residence in Flint Township months prior, according to court records cited by WWMT.
Evidence from the Michigan heists tied the group to at least 19 other confirmed burglaries nationwide, with total losses of at least $1.6 million.
Other recent cases involved an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who attempted to flee from ICE in Hazel Park, a Plymouth couple that allegedly employed hundreds of illegal immigrant plumbers, previously deported illegal immigrants from Guatemala who were allegedly selling fake identification documents in Grand Rapids, and an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic who pleaded guilty to voting in the 2020 election.
A Department of Homeland Security website detailing the “Worst of the Worst” lists at least 247 with prior convictions for a wide array of heinous crimes.
They include illegal immigrant criminals from Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Israel, Cuba, Laos, Iraq, Columbia, Nigeria, China, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Burma, Ukraine, Laos, El Salvador, Sudan, Romania, Peru, Pakistan, Ecuador, Somalia, Vietnam, Jordan, Thailand, Ghana, Poland, Cambodia, Iran, India, Spain, Pakistan, Eritrea, and Bhutan.
Convictions for the “Worst of the Worst” involved sex assaults, prostituting a minor, cocaine smuggling, DUIs, aggravated assaults, fraud, drug trafficking, hit and runs, lascivious acts with a minor, burglary, sex offenses, immigration fraud, homicide, smuggling aliens, carrying a concealed weapon, identity theft, property damage, resisting police, drug sales, racketeering, domestic violence, negligent manslaughter, flight to avoid prosecution, resisting police, amphetamine sales, cruelty toward a child, drug possession, fondling a child, possession of stolen property, counterfeiting, obstructing justice, trespassing, shoplifting, robbery, failure to register as a sex offender, prostitution, willful homicide, forceable purse snatching, probation violations, weapon trafficking, possession of burglary tools, rape, sodomy, manufacturing methamphetamines, sexual exploitation of a minor, extortion, kidnapping, computer fraud, intimidation, and other offenses.
