Sunday, March 04, 2007

Organized retail criminals sell their ill-gotten proceeds in many places

Organized retail crime is becoming a "buzz word" within the retail security industry. Because of this fact, many large retailers employ dedicated specialists to deal with the issue.

Some estimates (RILA) reflect that this could be a $34 billion a year problem.

I've seen a lot of recent stories about merchandise being fenced on auction sites. Although, this is a big problem, stolen goods are fenced in other places, also.

WKYC news (Ohio) is reporting that 19 homes and business were recently raided, illustrating how organized some of this activity can be.

Very interesting video, here.

The Washington Post, did an interesting article about organized retail crime in 2005, here.

It noted that federal law enforcement is getting involved in the prosecution of these cases, because of their impact, and (probably) the fact that they cross state lines, frequently.

RILA (The Retail Industry Leaders Association) proposed changes to Congress to deal with the problem, here.

Of note, they quote the FBI as saying that organized retail crime is funding terrorist organizations.

Another problem (the FBI calls out) is when outdated medicine and items, such as baby formula are repackaged and sold as new.

This could pose significant health risks to those, who purchase these stolen items.

Besides the fact that we all pay for this with our hard earned money (higher prices), our safety is being compromised by these criminals, also.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The dude getting arrested in the video as a foreign (muslim) name.

Security Services cork said...

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Weak retail security problems are very harmful for the organization and that's the reason why people look for the best retail security services.