SEATTLE (AP) — Federal court documents say a theft ring in Washington state sold millions of dollars’ worth of stolen goods on Amazon.com in the past six years, and a pair of Amazon delivery drivers was involved, recently unsealed.
The Associated Press reports two storefront businesses posing as pawn shops bought the goods from shoplifters, then had the items shipped to Amazon warehouses, where they were stored until sold online.
People associated with the alleged ringleader did at least $10 million in sales on Amazon since 2013.
No charges have yet been filed, though investigators have raided the pawn shops and the home of the man identified as the ringleader, Aleksandr Pavlovskiy, 44, of Auburn.
Among those who provided stolen items to the pawn shops were two contract Amazon drivers. Their job was to travel to SeaTac Airport, pick up items being returned to the company and then bring them to an Amazon warehouse south of Seattle, and to deliver items to post offices for shipping. Instead, they routinely stole the goods and sold them to the pawn shops.
Amazon did not immediately return an email seeking comment about the case Thursday.