HOUSTON -- Federal agents started arresting a ring of suspected thieves accused of swiping hundreds of unopened credit cards from the cargo holds of airliners, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday.

The stacks of credit cards were being hauled aboard Continental Airlines jets by the U.S. Postal Service.

Many of the stolen cards were actually debit cards that were issued to pay unemployment benefits to jobless people in Texas and Louisiana, according to court filings by postal inspectors.

"I'd be very upset," said laid-off Houston construction worker Travis Laday. "Some people out here are depending on that for gas money, other things, groceries, necessities, life."

Former Continental Airlines tarmac worker Donald Albert Mouton was arrested on felony charges of receiving stolen mail. He spent much of the day Friday undergoing questioning by postal inspectors.

In court filings, inspectors accused Mouton of accepting $1,000 from an undercover agent in exchange for a stack of 45 unopened debit cards that had been stolen from an aircraft cargo hold at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Earl Johnson, a laid-off chemical plant electrician, is awaiting one of those debit cards for his own livelihood as he searches for work. He said, "They need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law and fired from their job."

He suggested, "Where they have to depend on some of the same benefits that they've stolen from other people, maybe it will teach them a lesson."

Mouton was arrested for the same crime that sent him to jail in 2004. While employed by Continental, court records show he was caught red-handed, stealing greeting cards with cash from mail trays that were being loaded onto Continental jets.

He was found guilty by a federal judge on Sept. 14, 2007 and was still on probation when arrested again. This time, inspectors say he got the stolen mail from a person who still works with the airport mail shipments.

Some 500 credit cards were confiscated from a southwest Houston home, and inspectors said Mouton had sold them to another man who has also been arrested.

That man, who never worked for the airline, has already pleaded guilty to a felony count of receiving stolen mail. His sentencing is set for August and prosecutors said they hope both men can lead them to others who are still stealing the mail from airline shipments.

Continental Airlines issued a statement in response to the arrests that are now under way.

"Continental works hard to prevent any criminal activity at IAH by doing background checks on new employees and running a robust security program. We actively cooperate with law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute anyone who tries to pilfer freight or baggage."

In court papers, postal inspectors said they cracked the stolen mail ring by tracing phone calls that had activated many of the stolen cards before charges started racking up all over Houston. They also reviewed images captured by security cameras at ATMs that had spit out money because of the stolen cards.

Mouton will face a federal magistrate on Monday, when any decision on bail will likely be affected by his prior conviction.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service declined to comment, as did lawyers for both men arrested so far.