From UK Progressive
Organized crime rings are making millions peddling the most innocuous white powder there is, and the street value is surging.
Enfamil infant formula. (Photo by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Than Nguyen, a suburban housewife, is one of the latest suspects accused of peddling a surprisingly lucrative white powder on the black market. The 46-year-old faces theft and trafficking charges after allegedly running a stolen baby formula ring out of her home in Mill Creek, Washington, about 20 miles from downtown Seattle. Known to criminals as the “Formula Lady,” Nguyen spent at least 18 months purchasing tubs of pilfered powder at a fraction of the retail price and later reselling them to buyers around the world.
Nguyen’s simple scheme is emblematic of a multibillion-dollar market for stolen baby formula that’s been growing for years. Ubiquitous and with a surging street value, infant nutritional supplements remain one of the most shoplifted items in the U.S., fostering a steady stream of organized crime syndicates that confound law enforcement agencies and retailers across the country.
“In the big spectrum of retail crime, infant formula is one of the top items,” says Joe LaRocca of the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group. “Grocery chains will tell you that formula is targeted so often that in some cases they have locked it up, moved it behind the cash register, strategically put it on the floor, and in some cases they put a limited supply on the shelves.”
But the countermeasures have barely made a dent.
With individual cans going for as much as $10 on the black market, drug addicts and other low-level thieves stalk the aisles of Walmarts and other retail chains looking to swipe Enfamil or Similac, which can sell for as much as $100 in stores. In the last month alone, baby formula bandits have cropped up in California, Michigan, Texas and New Jersey.
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