Feds: Bellport food stamp fraud tied to drugs

A $400,000 scheme to defraud the food stamp program at a Bellport grocery store helped fuel the narcotics trade in the community, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

Adelso Martinez, 22, and his brother, Juan Aneury Salce-Martinez, 19, were arraigned on charges of theft of public money and conspiracy to defraud the United States at their arraignment in federal court in Central Islip.

The two, clerks at the Hermanos Martinez grocery at 1721 Montauk Hwy. were not required to enter a plea and were released on $100,000 bond by U.S. Magistrate Gary Brown. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Their attorneys declined to comment.

Owners of the grocery could not be reached for comment.

The alleged scheme was uncovered by a joint investigation into the Bloods street gang by agents of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the FBI and Suffolk detectives, according to sources. Many of the drug dealers in the Bellport area are believed to be members of the Bloods, the sources said.

Assistant United States Attorney Richard Lunger said the clerks converted to cash part of the funds from government-issued debit cards that were supposed to be used for the purchase of food. The clerks kept half of the cash and gave the customers the other half. The customers then used the cash to buy drugs from the dealers who hung out by the store, he said.

Recipients of the federal food stamp program, called SNAP -- Supplement Nutrition and Assistance Program -- receive a type of debit card known as an EBT, or Electronic Benefits Transfer card, court papers say.

In a typical example of the alleged scheme, a customer's EBT card was debited for $114.48. But the customer received only $14.48 in food; $100 in cash was split between the customer and the store, the court papers say.

In court papers, Lisa Barretti, an agent with the Agriculture Department's Inspector General, said that the grocery redeemed an average of $43,000 in SNAP benefits each month. Other similarly sized grocery stores in the Bellport area redeem between $600 and $2,700 in benefits a month. A large grocery store redeems about $8,400 in benefits a month, the papers say.