Parmesan, pecorino, Manchego — 25,000 pounds of cheese. A truck full of lamb and another with nearly 40,000 pounds of beef.
Sounds like a feast.
But instead, thieves made off with all of it, along with $3.3 million worth of cigarettes and other goods, intending to sell their loot on the black market, prosecutors in Manhattan said.
From October 2025 to April 2026, a crew stole $4.5 million worth of items using a scheme that involved a hacking syndicate, fake company logos and even more meat, according to prosecutors. The authorities indicted eight people in connection to the scheme on Wednesday.
“What is very disturbing here is that the victims, the direct victims of the conspiracy — the owners of the goods and the legitimate shipping companies — had no idea this was occurring until after the damage was done,” Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The group, which completed six heists, was part of an operation in which at least eight people collaborated to impersonate real shipping carriers and brokers, using fraudulently obtained shipment information to steal the massive amounts of protein and cigarettes, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
They said the crew worked with a hacking group that used phishing to steal shipment information. Businesses and shipping brokers that thought they were working with legitimate companies that they trusted were instead communicating with the hackers, they said.
Using the information, drivers would arrive at the pickup location, forged invoices in hand and fake logos affixed to their trucks, and steal the cargo.
The group also stole more than $266,000 worth of copper, prosecutors said.
The prosecutors said Murodullo Khasanov, 40, was the ringleader of the group of men whose ages ranged from early 20s to early 40s. Each person faces a count of conspiracy in the fourth degree as well as other charges, including grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. Three people were arraigned on Wednesday, while the other five, some of whom are immigrants from Uzbekistan, were either in ICE detention, deported or being extradited from Pennsylvania. Mr. Khasanov is also wanted in Uzbekistan for fraud, according to prosecutors.
Other attempts to sell stolen goods on the black market have included less perishable items. In 2024, Manhattan prosecutors charged several people with possessing $1 million in stolen goods from stores like Macy’s and Ulta Beauty.
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