Man arrested by US Secret Service swallows flash drive to destroy evidence

Florin Necula swallowed the Kingston flash drive shortly after his January 21 arrest outside a bank in Queens, according to U.S. District Court filings, The Smoking Gun reports.

Necula and three other men allegedly placed card readers over ATM slots to "skim" magnetic strip information off cards inserted in those machines. Agents recovered laptops, cameras, flash drives, and cell phones from the men and at a Long Island City apartment.

While the accused were waiting to be questioned at a Secret Service Office in Brooklyn, Necula grabbed a flash drive and swallowed it, Agent Joseph Borger noted in a search warrant affidavit.

Four days later, when Necula was still unable to produce the item, doctors become concerned that the he would be injured if they allowed the flash drive to remain inside of him. Necula eventually agreed to allow doctors at New York Downtown Hospital to remove the item. 

Necula is currently being held without bail at a Queens jail. He was charged with obstruction of justice, one of four felonies.

It remained unclear if stomach acid could damage the flash drive. "As you might imagine, we have no actual experience with someone swallowing a USB," Mike Sager Kingston executive wrote in an e-mail to TSG.