MIAMI – Four cruise passengers hailing from Tennessee and Georgia didn’t have much to celebrate after the Carnival Celebration returned to PortMiami Sunday; police say they all spent big on the seven-day trip using fraudulent credit cards.
According to the Miami-Dade Police Department, authorities arrested Decari Demetrius Cradle, 29, of Goodlettsville, Tennessee; Chanell Latrice Howard, 31, of Stone Mountain, Georgia; Dominick Maurice Howard, 31, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and Gilbert Salcido, 31, of Mount Juliet, Tennessee.
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Each member of the Southern quartet faces multiple counts of fraudulent use of a credit card as well as a single grand theft charge. Arrest reports don’t specify if or how the four were connected to or coordinated with one another.
The reports state that Carnival flagged each passenger after the multiple credit cards they used on the ship, and, in Chanell Howard’s case, to book the cruise itself, were declined. Police said the four couldn’t produce physical copies of the cards.
Dominick Howard was the biggest spender of the group, racking up a bill of almost $20,000, police said.
His arrest report states he cashed out a large sum of casino credits spent with the stolen cards. Police said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found nearly $11,000 cash in his luggage.
Police said the others fraudulently charged anywhere from $2,700 to $12,000.
After their time on the “Fun Ship,” cops took the four from the cruise terminal to Miami-Dade’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
A judge gave each arrestee the following bond amount:
- Cradle: $17,000
- Chanell Howard: $16,000
- Dominick Howard: $26,000
- Salcido: $20,000
All four remained at TGK as of Monday afternoon.