Posted on 06/01/2005 4:48:43 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
Charges were filed in Oklahoma County on Tuesday against four Mexican nationals accused in a shoplifting ring.
Court papers say the gang of shoplifters were shipping about 2,000 pounds of baby formula to Kentucky every two weeks.
Diana Savalo, 25; Pearla Visnaga, 19; Arsenio Ramirez Tepozotlan, 33; and Oscar Ramirez Topozetlan, 26, are accused of stealing 1,797 cans of baby formula, according to probable cause affidavits.
They are charged with concealing stolen property and larceny of merchandise from a retailer.
Oklahoma City police officers observed the men and women enter several stores and take baby formula without paying, according to court papers. The suspects were hoarding the formula in a storage unit located at 3401 N Bryant.
The theft of infant formula reportedly has been profitable for organized crime nationwide, and authorities think some of the proceeds may be used to fund terrorism.
Shawn Brown, assistant director of vendor management with the state Health Department, said infant formula theft is a growing problem. He said the formula is repackaged and sold on the black market.
"I hear stores are losing thousands of dollars at a time," Brown said. "There are instances in Oklahoma where people are stealing grocery carts full of formula."
They will call them anything but the criminals they are....I guess that would require doing something about it.
Highlands Ranch, of all places!
AHA! You are right! I didn't think of that. I think that powdery, ingestible, stuff like this can be used to "cut" drugs too, dilute them, but I am not sure if actual baby formula is used for that. But still, you could still just buy it legally if that was what you wanted it for.
The world is getting a little wacky for me these days.
"For some reason it seemed that the cans were being returned for cash refunds without the presentation of a receipt."
Now, that makes sense, because pound for pound it is likely the most expensive non-perishable thing you can buy at a supermarket. Especially the dry kind. It's like a pure protein vitamin packed powder.
Isn't multiculturalism a wonderful thing.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
Here is something depressing today regarding illegal immigration...
Cheating down on the border
A kickback scheme among federal agents in Arizona results in some charges--and plenty of questions
By Edward T. Pound
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/050606/6border.htm
Sure ...gotta FEED all them "anchor babies"...
It doesn't depress me ~ I'm never depressed!
I don't let all the insanity going on in the world interfer with my serenity.
If people get caught breaking the law; bust them!
Be Ever vigilant!
Oops ~ it's interfere. ;)
The clerk who spoke to me started to highlight the WIC connection, but our conversation was interrupted by a pesky customer. ;-)
But there's definitely something there. I wonder if the supermarkets had some P.C. policy not to "inconvenience" the consumers by requiring the receipts?
And cut the profit margin? Honestly, they poor souls have to make a living. :-) Die_Hard is right. Lock em out. Not one of those bleeding hearts would tolerate folks breaking into their home and taking up residence. If their so gung ho to let them in why don't they just put them up in their Beverly Hills mansions and support them? Haven't heard of any volunteers for that. Even an elevator has a capacity limit but the biggest idiocy is that if I, a Citizen of this country, break the law, I'm going to jail. But hordes of high-risk individuals flood into the country illegally, strain our infrastructure, suck up our resources, send billions of dollars back to a country too corrupt to provide their own stable economy, and we're supposed to say welcome and put an extra plate on the dinner table. This entire situation is beyond bizarre. The work ethics and moral principles that produced this country have been kicked to the curb in favor of gimme ethics and you-owe-me principles. A society can't survive that kind of internal bleeding for long.
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