For “heists” of this scale, carding “gangs” typically organize either with other carders they know or with other local, non-carding, gangs. Based on its location, I’d be hugely surprised if the Yakuza wasn’t involved - if for nothing else than for A) permission to use their territory & B) to pay either a % of the take or a nominal fee for using said territory.
This scale also requires a bit of an up-front-stake to purchase the supplies as most carding operations, while capable of scale, simply can’t blossom like this overnight. It’s likely, again based on the region, that a patron fronted that stake for a larger % off the top.
The “runners” typical get paid on a sliding scale. Low/new runners get a flat payment, regular runners or those managing a team of runners would likely see their flat + a small % of what their team brought in.
To answer a question above, I’ve never seen carding operations use “innocent money mules” for ATM operations like is done with banking scams where funds are transferred through a mules own account.
Additionally, due to both the sensitive nature of the operation (timing is key & all the preselected ATM’s are hit in a specific order to maximize the number of ATM’s that can be hit) & the amount of money out in the field being collected, everyone involved is known and/or trusted. The most anonymity is when a team lead is trusted to pick their own team & there is always anonymity between the runners & the person at the top who staked it.
While I’ve seen largely independent operations pull big hauls, the scale we’re looking at here necessities organization & funding to be this successful.
