Police bust B.C. crime ring accused of reselling stolen baby formula in China
VANCOUVER — Vancouver police have cracked down on a crime ring accused of stealing so much baby formula that retailers noticed a spike in the product disappearing from their shelves.
Det. Const. Doug Fell said officers have arrested a 46-year-old man who allegedly recruited as many as 20 drug-addicted people in the city’s impoverished Downtown Eastside to shoplift.
Fell called it a “predatory” operation at a news conference Thursday, adding that police seized an estimated $100,000 in stolen baby formula earlier this month. Police believe the crime ring shipped an additional $200,000 of the baby food to Asia, he said.
He said the operation was a mobile fencing ring, where someone known as a fence buys stolen goods from multiple thieves.