10 charged in Will Co. connected to multi-state theft ring with goods worth $7.5M
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Will County State's Attorney filed indictments against 10 people connected to a multi-state retail theft ring using millions of dollars operating in Chicago.
There were 126 pallets of goods, with 278,000 items in all. Prosecutors said five people stole the products from stores all over the Chicago area. Then they put them on pallets and shipped them to another group of five suspects in California and New York.
Those people allegedly sold the products online and at smaller stores.
State's Attorney James Glasgow said around $7.5 million was taken in an "organized criminal retail theft fencing operation." Items stolen in Wilmette led to the "identification of this fencing ring, and a cooperative multi-jurisdictional investigation was initiated after these thefts were linked to ongoing retail thefts occurring in Shorewood and Will County."
According to the state's attorney, the office worked with Homeland Security Investigations, Wilmette, and Chicago Police Departments and the Illinois State Police during the 18-month long investigation.
Search warrants were executed on October 6 in Chicago, Cicero, Oak Lawn, Bolingbrook and in California. Authorities officers got around $7.5 million dollars' worth of items and "evidence of a sophisticated criminal enterprise."
"We all pay the price when sophisticated criminals develop distribution systems to transport and sell stolen retail products, through the higher prices that are passed on to the consumer and, more significantly, with increased criminal activity when those at the top of these sophisticated enterprises recruit individuals to engage in theft at the local retailer," Glasgow said. "Rather than go after the thieves who stole these items at the retailers, we are prosecuting those at the top of the organization so that we can put an end to the entire enterprise. This sends the loud and clear message that crime will not be tolerated in Will County."
Those charged include Iaad Hamad, identified as the ring leader, Hani Housein Hamad, Markell Spencer, Michael Beals, Fekeisha Hamlin, Dylan Bryant, Brett Pendleton, Ahmed Salem, Donald Kimball and Arthur Blaire.
Each face charges from money laundering to theft. According to the indictment, wire transfers worth tens of thousands of dollars were sent among the suspects with phony operations called SMTT, Supreme Buybacks, Liquimart to resell the stolen merchandise.
