{"id":79164,"date":"2026-09-10T22:12:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T02:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=79164"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:12:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T02:12:41","slug":"florida-baby-formula-theft-ring-busted-in-1-1-million-operation-formula-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/10\/florida-baby-formula-theft-ring-busted-in-1-1-million-operation-formula-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Baby Formula Theft Ring Busted in $1.1 Million Operation Formula One"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On September 10, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the bust of a large-scale organized retail theft operation dubbed “Operation Formula One”<\/strong>. The 15-month joint investigation by the Florida Attorney General\u2019s Office and the Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office targeted a ring responsible for stealing over $1.1 million<\/strong> worth of baby formula in more than 150 separate retail thefts spanning nine judicial circuits.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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Key Details of the Bust<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • The Ringleaders:<\/strong> Mohammed Alsaidi<\/strong> (59) and Zeina Abdul-Hassan Sou Zabib<\/strong> (49), both of Lake Worth, were identified as the fences heading the enterprise. They operated out of their home and a warehouse in Davie.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Charges:<\/strong> Alsaidi and Sou Zabib face felony charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering<\/strong> and dealing in stolen property<\/strong>. If convicted on all counts, each faces up to 90 years in prison.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Operation:<\/strong> The scheme utilized professional shoplifters (“boosters”) who systematically wiped out shelves at major retailers like Publix, Walmart, Target, and CVS. The boosters sold cans to the ringleaders for around $10 each, and the products were amassed in warehouses to be resold for significant profit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Boosters Arrested:<\/strong> Nine boosters were charged alongside the ringleaders, including key operative Kenneth Jones Jr., who had previously been linked to dozens of thefts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Evidence Seized:<\/strong> Law enforcement recovered approximately 1,000 stolen cans of baby formula (valued at around $38,000) during a search warrant execution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On September 10, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the bust of a large-scale organized retail theft operation dubbed “Operation Formula One”. The 15-month joint investigation by the Florida… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL2ltYWdlcy0zLTMud2VicD9maXQ9NzM4JTJDNDE0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBCYWJ5IEZvcm11bGEgVGhlZnQgUmluZyBCdXN0ZWQgaW4gJDEuMSBNaWxsaW9uIE9wZXJhdGlvbiBGb3JtdWxhIE9uZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.9CyhVXjEEJJZqIXp29ZFI82c7gIVmTygAXA5YAkT-IkMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA5XC9pbWFnZXMtMy0zLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJGbG9yaWRhIEJhYnkgRm9ybXVsYSBUaGVmdCBSaW5nIEJ1c3RlZCBpbiAkMS4xIE1pbGxpb24gT3BlcmF0aW9uIEZvcm11bGEgT25lIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.NcOBiFeFbtbm667-7oSnTSHqg21CHO8cdT-_tWZiDQkMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[16994,16627,17001,16995,16998,17002,223],"class_list":["post-79164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-baby-formula-theft","tag-florida-crime-news","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-operation-formula-one","tag-organized-retail-crime","tag-palm-beach-county-sheriff","tag-retail-theft"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79175,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79164\/revisions\/79175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}