Ohio Man Sentenced to 16 Months in Federal Prison for Possessing Device-Making Equipment

Jackson, MS - An Ohio man was sentenced yesterday to 16 months in federal prison for illegally possessing credit card encoding devices.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on April 28, 2024, Sean Matthew Langston, Jr., 33, of Columbus, Ohio, was arrested in Rankin County following a traffic stop wherein he and his co-defendant, John Carleton Johnson, Jr., were found to be in possession of approximately 322 gift cards, seventeen reencoded instruments containing stolen bank card data, and two magstripe encoding devices. Langston and Johnson could be seen on CCTV footage at various retail stores throughout the Jackson metropolitan area purchasing gift cards with known cloned instruments.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Langston and Jonson on February 20, 2025. Langston pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession, production, or trafficking in device-making equipment with intent to defraud on December 11, 2025. Johnson pleaded guilty to the same charge on June 30, 2025, and was sentenced to 24 months' imprisonment on November 3, 2025. Both men were ordered to pay fines.

United States Attorney Baxter Kruger of the Southern District of Mississippi, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Patrick Glaze, and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch made the announcement.

The United States Secret Service, Mississippi Attorney General's Office, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation investigated the case through their partnership in the Cyber Fraud Task Force with assistance from the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Flowood Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly T. Purdie prosecuted the case.