Although a large percentage of the dozens of food stamp fraud busts I’ve written about at RRW involve Muslim immigrant convenience store owners, this is the first report I’ve seen where a mosque was searched.

From the Dayton Daily News (check out the photo of SWAT team with guns in front of the store):

DAYTON — Battle-clad federal and state agents backed by Dayton SWAT officers with assault weapons swarmed several sites in the city’s Dayton View neighborhood and West Dayton to serve search warrants in a food stamp fraud investigation.

Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Columbus, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture along with the Ohio Investigative Unit are leading the investigation and searches. Alverson said no arrests were expected, and no charges filed. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” he said.

Food stamp fraud siphons off about $330 million — or about 1 cent of every dollar in benefits paid out from the safety-net program each year across the nation, according to the USDA.

The money from the fraudulent operations often end up funding other criminal enterprises from gangs to drugs, USDA Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong told Congress last year. She reported at least one case where funds from the fraud were laundered and sent overseas to the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.

I’ve got news for Phyllis, we have more than one case in our archives where food stamp fraud money (taxpayers’ money) was sent out of the country to Africa or the Middle East.

Bad boys!  The SWAT team entered mosque to carry out warrant with their shoes on.

Warrants were served at Riverview Cell & Cup of Dreams, 512 N. Broadway St.; Five Pillars Market, 1263 W. Riverview Ave.; Food City, 1829 Germantown St.; and A&M Meats Inc., 1609 Gilsey Ave.

In addition, agents searched the Masjid-at-Taqwa mosque, 701 N. Broadway St., and the nearby house of the mosque’s imam.

Imam Al-Idu Al-Gaheem declined to comment. Al-Gaheem is the owner of the Five Pillars Market and Riverview Cell & Cup of Dreams.

A Secret Service agent removed computer equipment from the mosque. By afternoon, agents had loaded up a truck with boxes from the market.

Some members of the mosque were upset by the manner in which the mosque was entered. Abdul Aziz said the police were welcome to search the mosque, “but they have to respect the mosque. They went in with their shoes on. Would they show the same disrespect for a synagogue?”

Just a friendly reminder, the seller of the food stamp benefit (the poor person?) can be legally prosecuted for selling their stamps.   The number of food stamp recipients is through the roof, here.

For more food stamp fraud, use our search function.