A Florida man is facing prison time for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shellfish out of Washington state, according to KIRO 7.
Charging documents obtained by reporters accused 51-year-old David Subil of swindling Arctic Seafood, a California-based seafood company, out of $432,000 worth of Russian King and Opilio snow crabs in several orders. Prosecutors claim Subil posed as a Safeway representative, fake purchase orders to the company, and had the shipments come to a storage facility in Stanwood, Washington.
The seafood heist lasted from January 3 through the end of February, where Arctic Seafood never received payments and Subil rented a white Ryder truck to haul away 1,240 cases of crabs, per records.
The seafood company realized they overcharged Subil and reached out to him, who identified himself as Christopher Delgado. They found out the phone number Delgado provided didn't work, and when they followed up with Albertson, the parent company of Safeway, they told Arctic the vendors didn't exist.
After realizing they were duped, Arctic Seafoods got another call from Delgado about a third order of 12,000 pounds of king crab legs and claws. The company notified the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office about the impending purchase, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also got involved with the case.
Deputies tracked Subil and his associates to a weigh station, learning he sold some of the seafood to another company in Florida. They found out the Florida license plate on the Ryder truck was invalid and one of the letters even fell off while cops followed the vehicle.
Federal investigators revealed the 51-year-old booked a one-way plane ticket to Colombia. With no known connection to the country, authorities believe Subil was trying to evade the authorities. He was reportedly arrested in South Florida in late February, according to HeraldNet.
A federal grand jury indicted Subil on three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property on March 1, reporters said. He faces decades in prison if convicted.