Investigation leads to indictment of 56 people

The OIG’s EBT Trafficking Unit collaborated with Homeland Security Investigations and the USDA Office of Inspector General to serve search warrants on a business and residence in Brownsville.

More than 100 SNAP recipients were identified as part of a four-year long scheme involving $1.3 million in trafficked SNAP benefits. Investigators found a meat market owner allowed SNAP recipients to swipe their EBT cards at the register without making a purchase and gave them a receipt. The SNAP recipient would take the receipt to the home of the owner’s associate and receive 2/3 the amount of the receipt in cash. The associate would later reconcile the receipt with the owner for meat products and then sell the meat to a third party. The United States District Attorney indicted six people believed involved in the fraudulent scheme. The Cameron County District Attorney agreed to pursue indictments of 50 SNAP recipients. The remainder of the recipients involved will be handled administratively.

This quarter, the EBT unit completed 67 investigations and presented another 31 investigations for either administrative disqualification hearings (14) or prosecution (17). To read more about EBT’s work, please click here.