Texas women sentenced to jail for illegally obtaining 50 tons of cheese and 5,000 gallons of mayonnaise

Team Udayavani, Mar 14, 2022, 11:58 AM IST

Two women were sentenced to prison in the United States for unlawfully obtaining an excessive amount of cheese, mayonnaise, and a slew of other consumables that could easily cost anyone a fortune.

Ana Rioja and Maria Consuelo de Ureno, both from Brownsville, Texas, are accused of defrauding the government of $1.2 million in food stamps. The two pled guilty in court, saying they obtained more than $1.2 million worth of cheese, beans, coffee, and mashed potatoes through the benefits system, which they then sold and brought across the US border.

The con was carried out over a five-year period, during which the pair exchanged SNAP food stamps, which are only granted to low-income families, for food at a local market known as ‘Border Meats.’

According to reports, the couple made at least 713 bogus transactions with SNAP food snaps that belonged to hundreds of other people.

Authorities discovered 49.1 tonnes of American cheese slices, 22.3 tonnes of pinto beans, 1.6 tonnes of Folgers coffee, 1.4 tonnes of instant mashed potatoes, and 5,000 litres of mayonnaise once the scam was discovered.

The women’s con began five years ago. Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Agriculture initiated an inquiry in September 2016. However, it took the government several years to uncover all of the scam’s intricacies.

Rioja and de Ureno both received prison sentences after pleading guilty to the allegations.

Rioja was sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Ureno was sentenced to 37 months in prison with three years of supervised release.