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$325K snow crab heist in Worcester leads to federal charges

  • Posted by Worcester News Feb 6 - Filed in News - #Worcester  #crime  #drugs  #U.S. Attorney  - 3,261 views


    U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts photos

    WORCESTER — A New York man has been charged in a federal cargo theft scheme that prosecutors say included stealing more than $325,000 worth of frozen snow crabs from a Worcester warehouse by posing as a legitimate truck driver.

    Romoy Forbes, 31, a Jamaican national living in Deer Park, N.Y., was arrested Thursday on Long Island and charged with interstate transportation of stolen goods and conspiracy to commit that offense, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts said.

    According to charging documents, Forbes allegedly stole 33,750 pounds of frozen snow crabs on July 15th, 2025, from a warehouse in Worcester. Prosecutors allege a co-conspirator hacked into the email account of a legitimate trucking company and used it to arrange the shipment with a transportation business.

    Authorities said Forbes arrived at the Worcester facility pretending to work for the trucking carrier, loaded the seafood into his truck and drove away. Instead of delivering the cargo to its intended destination in Jacksonville, Fla., Forbes allegedly transported the snow crabs to a grocery store location in Queens, N.Y., where he photographed the pallets.

    Federal prosecutors said the Worcester theft was part of a broader scheme that targeted high-value cargo across multiple states. Before the alleged seafood theft, Forbes is accused of stealing a shipment of blueberries in Winslow Junction, N.J., in June 2025 after a co-conspirator allegedly hacked another trucking company’s email account. The blueberries were later sold illicitly, prosecutors said.

    Later that month, Forbes allegedly conspired to steal approximately $433,830 worth of designer cologne from a warehouse in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., again by impersonating a trucking carrier after an email account was compromised. Prosecutors said Forbes offered the fragrances for sale to a contact saved in his phone as “My customer for everything.”

    Forbes will make his initial appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of New York and is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Boston at a later date. The charge of interstate transportation of stolen goods carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison, while the conspiracy charge carries a possible sentence of up to five years.

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