Four men charged as police bust fencing operation after 13-month investigation
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Four men have been charged with selling stolen pharmaceuticals and other merchandise and making millions in profits.
Matthew Smith, 39, of the Lawndale neighborhood; Abdel Jarwan, 75, of the Montclare neighborhood; Khaled Hussein, 57, of the Portage Park neighborhood; and Wael Kartoum, 26, of southwest suburban Chicago Ridge, were all charged with felony theft in connection with the fencing operation.
Smith, Jarwan, and Hussein were also charged with one count each of running a continuing financial crimes enterprise. Smith was charged in addition with the manufacture and delivery of heroin near a school or park, and cannabis near a school. Police did not elaborate on the drug charges in a news release.
Police said the four men were charged in a 13-month investigation conducted by the Chicago Police Organized Retail Crime Task Force, along with the Chicago Police Central Investigations Division, Vice Unit, and Central (1st) District Tactical Teams, and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, private retail investigators, the Cook County Regional Organized Crime Task Force, and agents from the Illinois Department of Revenue.
The investigation focused on the illegal sale of pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter merchandise, which were revealed to have been stolen from retail stores – and later sold for cash profit to people who would ship them and resell them.
The recipients would then ship the products out of state, police said. The business they were doing was worth at least $2 million per month, police said.
The Organized Retail Crime Task Force, or ORCTF, recovered more than $1.3 million worth of stolen goods – along with an estimated $150,000 in cash and gold, police said.
Police did not specify the role each man is accused of playing in this operation.