New York men Rambhai Patel and Balwinder Singh have been arrested and charged in federal court for running a "robbery for visas" scheme.
Yes, you read that correctly: Robbery for Visas.
Patel and Singh committed eight armed robberies of mini marts and liquor stores this year, but after reviewing the robberies, authorities thought they were odd. In all of the eight cases, there was an illegal immigrant present, either working as a clerk or in the store. In seven of the eight cases, the immigrants applied for a U-visa.
A United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Visa is a special visa that is given to illegal, undocumented immigrants who are helpful to law enforcement when a crime is committed.
Biden vowed to speed up the process for people waiting for U-visas, but even Biden's Homeland Security Department says the program is "not managed effectively and is susceptible to fraud."
The part that really tipped off the investigators about Patel and Singh is that they had to travel via airplane for one heist, and the trip cost more than the amount they took from the register.
An unnamed accomplice referred to as CW-1 flipped on Patel and Singh after being arrested.
CW-1 then introduced a FBI agent posing as a new potential robber, who uncovered the sordid details of the scheme.
UCE: Ok, now now how does it go down? Do I got to hop the counter, do I need to pull the gun out, what do you need me to do?
PATEL: Just show the gun, that's it, just [unintelligible] hands up, just you know, just take it up from the register, the money, and just give it to me, that's it.
UCE: So you sure they don't call the police, man? This **** sound a little too good to be true, man. You know what I mean, like, are you sure?
PATEL: Yeah, he can call like after fifteen minutes, don't worry.
UCE: And, and what about for, like how I look and ****, they're not going to tell how I look or nothing close to how I look, how does that work?
PATEL: No, they, they, they doesn't tell, don't worry.
Illegal immigrants would pay Patel and Singh $10,000 to rob them. The stores would receive between $1,000 and $2,000 to act as venues for the robbery, and then Patel would contact lawyers to help the "victims" apply for their U-visas. The "robbers" each got $500, and Patel took what was left.
The crew took their robbery show through Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee before finally being caught.
As far as I can tell, no U-visas were issued, and there's no word if the illegal immigrants trying to defraud the government have been arrested and charged in the scheme as well.
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