[Breitbart] A Baltimore man was sentenced to four years behind bars for illegally trafficking food stamps.U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Mohammad Shafiq, 51, to four years in prison and three years of supervised release after his sentence ends, in addition to making him pay $3.7 million in restitution, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Shafiq was the latest defendant to be sentenced in a series of prosecutions of 14 retailers in the Baltimore area. A federal grand jury indicted the retailers in August 2016 for food stamp and wire fraud.
The 14 retailers stole a total of $16 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture by illegally exchanging food stamps for cash, according to the indictment. Twelve out the 14 defendants pleaded guilty, and two were sentenced this week, according to the Sun.
Multiple stores across the country have been cited for millions of dollars in food stamp fraud. Investigators found more than $20 million worth of food stamp fraud at retailers in Florida, and 140 stores in Chicago were cited for food stamp fraud.