Five suspects have been arrested after area police and federal authorities raided two pawn shops on Dewey Avenue in Rochester and in Greece.
Federal prosecutors say the two shops were involved in a near-$16 million scheme to buy and re-sell stolen merchandise. U.S. Attorney James Kennedy says Rochester Pawn and Gold and Royal Crown Pawn and Jewelry in effect maintained “shopping lists” of items they encouraged opioid addicts to steal from area big box stores. The stolen merchandise would be brought to the pawn shops, where the addicts would receive about 30 percent of the retail value in cash that they would use to buy drugs. The two shops would resell the stolen merchandise on Ebay and Amazon.
Kennedy says the five suspects were using the profits to finance lavish lifestyles while the addicts did the dirty work. They faked their records in an attempt to make the transactions appear legitimate.
Arrested were Thomas Nary, Eric Finnefrock, Devin Tribunella and Wade Shatters of Rochester, plus Ralph Swain of Farmington. All are charged with wire fraud, conspiracy, selling stolen goods across state lines and other crimes. Finnefrock, Swain and Tribunella are also charged with aggravated identity theft.
The scheme began in January of 2015 with Rochester Pawn. Royal Crown began in 2017.