Eight alleged US thieves indicted for stealing $5m worth of cheese, beef and cigarettes

Eight people were indicted this week in New York in connection with what prosecutors describe as a “wide-ranging retail theft ring” that stole nearly $5m worth of goods – from steaks to cheeses to copper wiring and cigarettes. The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced charges against the eight individuals on Wednesday, accusing them of “conspiring to impersonate shipping carriers in a wide-ranging retail theft ring throughout the north-east”. Prosecutors say the group “used fraudulently obtained shipment information of real shipping carriers and brokers, impersonated the legitimate companies, and stole nearly $5m in goods from logistics sites in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey”. “The stolen goods were then diverted to New York City for sale on the black market,” they said. The indictment alleges that the operation ran from October 2025 through April 2026 and involved six thefts. Prosecutors say that the defendants stole $165,000 worth of lamb; $432,000 worth of cheese; $295,000 worth of beef; more than $266,000 worth of copper; and more than $3.3m of cigarettes. Prosecutors outlined in a news release how the scheme allegedly worked and said that “when a manufacturer wants to ship large quantities of goods, they contract with a shipping broker who advertises the job using an online platform” and that “shipping carriers will then make bids, and the winner gets the final shipment details from the broker”. …