Former Lovejoy grocer pleads guilty to food stamp fraud
Ahmed Alshami, huddled mass
By Melinda MillerPublished Thu, Apr 13, 2017
It wasn’t neighborhood complaints about possible drug dealing at the store, or that the owners were selling untaxed cigarettes.
What finally got Ahmed Alshami arrested and closed down the IGA Community Express Mart on Ludington at Davey street was a shopper who called police when someone used her food benefits card at a Tops market. The caller told police she didn’t shop at Tops.
That investigation led police to Alshami, according to District Attorney john J. Flynn, and to Alshami’s practice of buying government food benefits from people for perhaps 50 cents on the dollar. …
Alshami also pleaded guilty to attempted burglary in a second, unrelated case. He reportedly broke into a vacant property in his Lovejoy neighborhood with the intent to remove items left there and use or sell them.
Defense attorney Emily Trott noted that her client may face consequences more serious than the possible prison term of 3 2/3 to 11 years. Although Alshami is legally in the United States, he is a Yemeni national who now has two felony convictions. Alshami had 10 prior arrests, many of them for drugs.
“I’ve offered my client no guarantees of what the U.S. government might do,” Trott said. “Nothing is for certain regarding his immigration consequences.” …
At one point Alshami posted a photo of himself on Facebook giving his middle finger to the neighborhood and writing there was nothing they could do to get him out. He eventually apologized. …
The couple’s daughter, who joined her mother in court to observe the plea on Thursday, was known to defend her family online and end posts with “(Expletive) you! (Expletive) America!”