Mohammad Reza Moradi (Huntsville Police Department)
Reader ‘pungentpeppers’ alerted us to this new twist on the immigrant-run convenience store fraud we discussed here yesterday. (For new readers, this is a side-interest here at RRW).
I wouldn’t be surprised if these perps are also into the food stamp fraud business. In fact, a few times I’ve seen mentioned that if convenience store shelves are not well-stocked it’s a tip-off to authorities that some other nefarious business (including selling drugs or guns) is being transacted there. So, they gotta keep stuff on the shelves!
These guys were arrested for buying stolen property from large grocery chains to resell in their Mom & Pop stores—in Alabama of all places!
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama–Huntsville police arrested five local convenience store employees and charged them with reselling items stolen from Kroger and Publix.
Investigators partnered with Kroger and Publix grocery stores for several months, investigating convenience stores that police say bought merchandise stolen from Kroger and Publix. According to police, this detail, combined with previous operations, resulted in a reduction of retail thefts for the two grocery stores.
The police are still looking for the sixth man—Fatah—alleged to be involved in the fencing ring. We may learn later that they were into more than stolen property.
Of course, as always there is no mention of nationalities or immigration status of those arrested. Is there no real investigative reporter curious enough to uncover how all these American convenience stores are being bought up by a large percentage of Middle Easterners?
For more than you ever wanted to know about food stamp fraud at convenience stores, click here for our extensive archives. Go here to see how you can report suspected SNAP fraud near you.
This is a new twist on convenience store scams I usually write about. Food stamp fraud on a massive scale is being perpetrated on the American taxpayer, but this time franchise owner’s of 7-Eleven stores in New York and Virginia have been found to be harboring illegal alien workers and then keeping a portion of their wages.
The Long Island home purchased by alleged immigrant scammers, Farrukh Baig, 57, and Bushra Baig, 49, was purchased for $1.75 million in 2004. CARRIE MILLER PHOTO
The report in the Washington Posttells us that now a nationwide effort is being made to check other 7-Eleven stores for similar types of fraud. And, it reminded me, has the killer been identified in the murder of the Bhutanese refugee in St. Louis who was found shot in the 7-Eleven store in which he worked.
And, you know what is galling too! All the illegal alien Pakis taken into custody in the 7-Eleven raids could get amnesty in the coming months if the Gang of Eight is successful in getting a bill to Obama this year.
Here is the WaPostory. I had to laugh because the alleged perps are not identified until the closing paragraphs.
A married couple and two brothers who operated 7-Eleven stores in Virginia and New York employed dozens of illegal immigrants under assumed identities and exploited the workers by pocketing some of their wages and requiring them to pay rent to live in unlicensed boardinghouses, authorities said.
Federal indictments unsealed Monday in Brooklyn, N.Y., allege that the four owners and five additional defendants carried out the years-long scheme at four 7-Eleven stores in the Norfolk area and 10 stores in Long Island, N.Y.
At least 50 illegal immigrants, most or all of them from Pakistan, were employed at various times under more than 20 stolen identities of U.S. citizens, some of which were used repeatedly, authorities said.
“From their 7-Eleven stores, the defendants dispensed wire fraud and identity theft along with Slurpees and hot dogs,” said Loretta E. Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, whose office is handling the case. “The defendants not only systematically employed illegal immigrants but concealed their crimes by raiding the cradle and the grave to steal the identities of children and even the dead.”
More stores are going to be investigated. Maybe Homeland Security should check that 7-Eleven in South St. Louis where the refugee was recently murdered.
The alleged scheme had been going on for more than a decade, authorities said. They said the investigation is continuing and that federal agents were inspecting the employment record at about 30 other 7-Eleven stores in the country. Lynch called the case “one of the largest criminal immigrant employment investigations ever conducted” by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
Coming out of the shadows! In the last two paragraphs we learn who the crooks are:
The married couple, Farrukh Baig, 57, and Bushra Baig, 49, both of Long Island, controlled the franchise rights to four Virginia 7-Eleven stores in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake, according to the prosecutors. The brothers, Azhar Zia, 49, and Ummar Uppal, 48, also of Long Island, controlled the franchise rights to two 7-Elevens in Long Island.
The Baigs and Zia are naturalized U.S. citizens and Uppal is a Pakistani national, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Of five additional defendants, who helped the Baigs run their stores, authorities said, three are naturalized U.S. citizens, one is a Pakistani national and one is a citizen of the Philippines.
PHOTO! There are more details in the Suffolk Times and it is where the photo is from.
Readers, this post only tangentially involves refugees (that we know of so far!), some enterprising blogger-wannabe should write a blog primarily dedicated to reporting on scams to rip-off the infidels—food stamp fraud, Medicare/Medicaid fraud, wire fraud and trafficking (human!) like this story.
