An Austin man who put skimmer devices on gas pumps at a convenience store in Tyler and other locations was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.

Yoerlan Suarez-Corrales, 39, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the 114th District Court in Smith County to a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity, a first-degree felony. He was convicted and sentenced Wednesday. 

Suarez-Corrales was arrested July 27 at the Exxon convenience store at 858 SSE Loop 323. 

Investigators removed skimmer devices from a gas pump and later saw three men, including Corrales, arrived at the station to retrieve the devices from the pumps.

A news release from the Smith County District Attorney’s Office said video surveillance of Corrales show him and two other co-defendants attempting to steal information from skimmers they had installed in gas pumps in Tyler. 

Corrales was also caught on video surveillance at Sam’s Club in Tyler using victim’s identifying information on re-encoded credit cards that had been stolen from the gas pumps by skimming devices throughout the state, according to the DA’s office. 

The DA’s office said Corrales had been on probation in Louisiana for three months for credit card skimming when he was caught in Tyler. 

Investigators began looking into gas pump skimmers in 2017 when there was a spike in the area of credit card accounts being stolen through the use of the devices. 

More than 15 gas stations in Tyler and 15 other stations in Smith County became victims of the crime that year. Investigators determined that one business in the area was the victim of more than $28,000 worth of transactions.