Seventeen people have been indicted in a multi-state conspiracy, accused of stealing more than $2.3 million in federal food stamps and using the benefits to buy thousands of pounds of infant formula and other food to then sell on the black market. Federal agents executed search warrants at various homes and public storage units in the Portland and Vancouver areas on Tuesday.
Those arrested made initial appearances in federal court Wednesday afternoon in Portland. Assistant U.S Attorney Geoffrey Barrow said the “poorest citizens around the country” first learned that someone had stolen their food stamp benefits when they discovered “their cards had been drained.
” Those involved used skimming devices to steal the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, Barrow said. The defendants are accused of using the stolen benefits to buy large quantities of baby formula and other non-perishable foods at multiple Fred Meyer and Safeway stores, stockpiling the food in homes and then public storage units in Vancouver, Washington, before shipping the goods by tractor trailers to California to be resold, according to the indictment unsealed Wednesday. Investigators identified at least 17 shipments of more than 124,000 pounds of infant formula, energy drinks and other food from storage units in Washington to California from September 2023 to last month, according to the indictment.
“The Defendants stole from some of the community’s most vulnerable victims—low-income fa.
