U.S. Seizes 14 7-Eleven Stores in Immigration Raids

 In one instance, an employee of one franchise was paid using the Social Security number of a former 7-Eleven employee, a person who had not worked for the store for 10 years and who had been the target of collection efforts by the Internal Revenue Service for much of that time because of the reported payments to the illegal immigrant, officials said.       

The charges against the owners and managers, eight men and a woman, included wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. Each pleaded not guilty in federal court and was held in custody pending trial.       

The conduct charged in the indictment, officials said, had been going on since 2000, during which the defendants generated more than $180 million in revenue.       

One of the raids took place around 6 a.m., at a 7-Eleven on Carleton Avenue in Islip Terrace, on Long Island, according to a law enforcement agent at the scene who declined to give his name or reveal the agency he worked for. One person, he said, was taken into custody from the store and two people were taken away from a house across the street.       

A neighbor who lives near the house said the home had been divided into several apartments.       

“It’s packed in there,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. “There’s been a constant flow of new people coming in.”  

Article Appeared@http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/nyregion/us-seizes-14-7-eleven-stores-in-immigration-raids.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

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