In Brief: Arizona offers $50,000 reward for freeway shooter

PHOENIX – Digital billboards will be advertising the $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the Phoenix-area freeway shootings.

Arizona Department of Public Safety officials said Wednesday that 16 all-digital billboards will be on display around the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Authorities are investigating 11 confirmed vehicle shootings since Aug. 29, mostly along Interstate 10.

Man pleads guilty in credit hacking

CAMDEN, N.J. – A Russian man accused of selling some of the 160 million credit and debit card numbers obtained in a computer hacking scheme pleaded guilty Wednesday.

Moscow resident Dmitriy Smilianets entered his plea to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Camden. Smilianets, 32, faces up to 30 years in prison plus millions of dollars in fines when he is sentenced in January.

The information was sold to create magnetic strips for counterfeit credit cards.

10 charged with making fake pot

NEW YORK – Ten men were charged Wednesday with conspiring to manufacture synthetic marijuana laced with dangerous chemicals and distributed to retailers throughout New York City’s five boroughs.

The crackdown is the largest to date involving a substance widely known on the street as K2 or Spice and smoked like pot.

The K2 sold over the counter in delis, head shops and other small businesses is “poison,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference. “Despite sometimes being called synthetic marijuana, this stuff is not marijuana.”