CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Cross Lanes man has been arrested for his alleged role of leading a massive fencing operation, shoplifting-for-profit scheme.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Mike Stuart announced on Monday that Nedeltcho Vladimirov, a native of Bulgaria and the United States, had a network of shoplifters that took nearly 4,000 items valued at nearly $400,000 from retailers in approximately the past two years.
He was taken into custody Monday morning without incident.
Stuart said the 15 to 20 shoplifters in the scheme, also known as “boosters,” were working under Vladimirov and most of them have substance abuse disorders. Stuart called it a tragic cycle of events.
“Vladimirov, we allege, would pay these shoplifters pennies on the dollar for these good they would steal from the stores. These users, then, would take these few dollars to their drug dealer of choice and buy the drugs that feed their addiction,” he said.
Stuart would not go into detail with the number of stores affected but the main three retail targets were Kroger, CVS, and Target in the Kanawha Valley.
Vladimirov would allegedly then relist the stolen items on eBay and other social media sites such as Facebook Marketplace for sale. When he was busted on Monday, Stuart said he had thousands of currently listings on his eBay account.
“Electronics being some of the favorite items, vitamins you name it,” Stuart said. “Anything that could be sold on eBay that is a popular good to be purchased. They were stealing, selling for pennies on the dollar and they were being sold.”
Investigators on the case included the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, corporate investigators from CVS, Kroger and Target, Stuart’s office, U.S. Secret Service, South Charleston Police Department, and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
They believe the stolen items generated around $200,000 in sales from Jan. 2019 to Jan. 2020. The criminal complaint said the scheme took place from late 2017 to late 2019.
The exact number of items sold from Vladimirov’s online accounts totaled 3,676 for a total of $369,818.62, a release said.
Stuart said the taxpayer and consumer are greatly affected by these shoplifting-for-profit schemes.
“These retailers who would love to hire more employees, can’t do it,” he said. “Because they lose money every day because of shoplifting schemes like this.
“Consumers pay a heavy price in other ways too. Beyond the price of the goods that they pay at the store, insurance rates go up.”
Vladimirov has been charged with money laundering. Stuart would not comment on if the shoplifters would face charges.