More than 200 FBI (news - web sites) agents arrested the defendants based on evidence provided by informants and electronic surveillance. The defendants were awaiting arraignment in federal court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said the ring included a confederation of ``brokers'' who paid people to give them their Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express numbers.
Between 1998 and January of this year, the brokers allegedly used corrupt merchants' credit card machines to exha