L-R: James Donnellan, Joseph Elardo, Nicole Johnson, and Sharmane Cromer are accused of stealing frozen shrimp and selling them to a Chinese food takeout restaurant. (Suffolk County Police photos)
NEW YORK (MYFOXNY) -
Police on Long Island say they have made arrests in ongoing shrimp thefts from local supermarkets.
Police say the thieves were selling the shrimp to a Chinese restaurant to support their drug habits.
Suffolk County Police have arrested four Calverton people for the thefts that started in December 2012.
Police say they discovered a pattern in the thefts of thousands of dollars of shrimp.
The arrests came in a traffic stop on January 30.
Joseph Elardo, 34, Sharmane Cromer, 34, James Donnellan, 33, and Nicole Johnson, 22, all of 169 Southfield Road, Calverton face several charges.
The owner of Tai Yu Chinese Restaurant, where the shrimp were allegedly sold was also arrested. Xue Chai Li, 34, of Mastic Beach is facing stolen property charges.
He was also slapped with a sanitary code violation for using an unapproved source for food.
Elardo, Cromer, Donnellan and Johnson were arraigned in Central Islip. Li will appear in court at a later date.
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L-R: James Donnellan, Joseph Elardo, Nicole Johnson, and Sharmane Cromer are accused of stealing frozen shrimp and selling them to a Chinese food takeout restaurant. (Suffolk County Police photos)
