More news from Everett, WA

Not just that one store -- from the Everett Daily Herald:

Second smoke shop raided in probe of food-stamp fraud
Another day, another raid on a north Everett smoke shop.

A steady stream of customers to the Tobacco Hut at 1917 Broadway was turned away Wednesday afternoon while Everett police and state social services investigators searched the store for evidence of possible food-stamp fraud.

Store owner Nadeem Ahmed Pasha, 39, was arrested. Police say they found a state food-benefits card belonging to someone else in his wallet.

�We found evidence of more fraud,� Everett police Lt. Jim Duffy said, standing outside the business while investigators inside pored over business receipts, examined inventory and confiscated suspected illegal drugs.

And some great news:

Among other things, investigators from the state Department of Social and Health Services will be contacting people whose cards were seized Wednesday. They could lose their benefits and face criminal charges.

No mention of the nation of origin for Nadeem Ahmed Pasha and one of the commenters had this wonderful idea:

Suggestion to the Police Departments. When they raid shops like these, just haul off he owner and then put your own "clerks" in the shop for the rest of the day. Arrest those that come in to sell their EBT cards. If the store has a back door, just arrest them and hustle them out the back into a waiting "jail bus", My guess is that there'll be a steady stream of those selling the EBT cards or stolen merchandise. Don't just go for the owner, go for the rest of the offenders as well.

Do this enough and those who are selling these cards or shoplifted merchandise won't know if they're going into a store where they'll be arrested or not. Put a little fear into that crowd for a change.

Doing this a couple times would cut fraud down to a minimum. People get greedy if they see that there is no cost involved. Implement a cost and watch the fraud decline...