According to the New York Post, food-stamp fraud in New York has turned into foreign aid to black-market profiteers in the Dominican Republic, with people on welfare buying food with their benefit cards and shipping it in blue barrels to poor relatives in the Dominican Republic.
In addition, the Post last week found two people hawking barrels of American products for a profit on the streets of Santiago.
“It’s a really easy way to make money, and it doesn’t cost me anything,” a seller named Maria-Teresa said Friday.
The 47-year-old Bronx native told The Post she scalps barrels of Frosted Flakes and baby formula bought with welfare money in the United States.
Maria-Teresa said she gets new barrels every few weeks from her sister, and pays $75 per barrel to transport the items to the DR.
Maria-Teresa said she uses some of the products but sells the rest out of her Santiago home, providing markdowns of $1 to $2 compared to what her buyers would pay in local shops.
“I don’t know how much of a business it is, but I know a lot of people are doing it,” she said.
http://newyorkpost.com/p/news/local/isle_take_that_welfare_scam_VBsTspIxia2GA9o2oS505L