Working with island merchants, hotels and banks, police white-collar investigators and Secret Service agents were able to track a pair of New York residents just as they allegedly began a six-day spending spree using counterfeit American Express credit cards.
Authorities on Wednesday charged Keneil Callender, 23, and Raven McCants, 21, with second-degree theft and multiple counts of credit card theft. Bail for each was set at $500,000.
They are expected to be arraigned sometime this week. The maximum prison sentence for a class C felony is five years.
Lt. John McCarthy, who heads the police department’s financial crimes section, said he expects additional charges will be filed against the pair.
McCarthy said the two arrived in the islands Feb. 13 and by the second day of their stay police and Secret Service agents already were aware of their activities. They were arrested Monday at Aulani Disney Resort in Kapolei.
McCarthy said Callender used the alias "Timothy Stallings," while McCants went by the name "Tiffany Williams." None of the credit card holders lives in Hawaii.
McCants does not have a criminal record, McCarthy said, while Callender is a felon.
Timothy Kozak, assistant to the Secret Service agent-in-charge of the Honolulu office, said there was no particular reason why the pair used only counterfeit American Express cards.
Both McCarthy and Kozak credited cooperation among merchants, hotels and the banking industry for the early detection and apprehension.
The pair focused on "high end" jewelry and women’s clothing accessories at shops in Ala Moana and Waikiki, McCarthy said.
Police were able to recover the items.
McCarthy said there is "an indication" that the pair knew five people who ran a similar phony credit card operation last year.
Earlier this month, an Oahu grand jury indicted five people with running up charges on phony credit cards at luxury retail stores on Oahu during a five-day period in April. The cards 
were encoded with information stolen from legitimate credit cards.
So far, only one of the defendants has been extradited from New York to face theft and identity theft charges. Falysha Pierre-Lys, 22, was arraigned last week and is being held without bail.
At her arraignment, Circuit Judge Richard Perkins revoked Pierre-Lys’ $500,000 bail because he determined that she poses a serious risk of fleeing.
Pierre-Lys was arrested in Miami in April 2011 and in New York in December 2011 and June 2012 on similar charges.
An Oahu grand jury in November returned an indictment against Pierre-Lys, along with Isatta Bassie, 19; Shawnese Adams, 24; Sean Khani, 24; and Tamel Vaughn, 24.
The indictment alleges that the five suspects traveled from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Hawaii in April 2012 and used counterfeit credit cards to rack up purchases at Chanel, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.
Khani and Vaughn were arrested in New York last week.
Bassie and Adams are being held in Aruba on unrelated charges.
