Recall a 2013 exposé from the New York Post that revealed a major scam in the food stamps world: Caribbean migrants, enrolled in SNAP, were buying up non-perishable items like cereal and baby formula, packaging it all up into those 55-gallon blue barrel drums, and shipping it back to their home nations, all to be sold on the black market for a quick buck at the American taxpayer’s expense.

Here’s a brief rundown:

Food-stamp fraud in New York has turned into foreign aid — to black-market profiteers in the Dominican Republic.

‘It’s a really easy way to make money, and it doesn’t cost me anything,’ a seller named Maria-Teresa said Friday.

The 47-year-old Bronx native told The Post she scalps barrels of Frosted Flakes and baby formula bought with welfare money in the United States.

For reference, the Dominican Republic is a very food-insecure nation: according to data from the Integrated Food Insecurity Phase Classification (IPC) published earlier this year, 9% of the population is at a “crisis” level of food insecurity (963,000 people), while another 18% is in the “stressed” demographic (1.926 million). Furthermore, the World Food Programme states that 33% of the nation “lacks access to a nutritious diet.”

But, these blue barrels aren’t the full scope: Maria-Teresa has a home in the DR, and she also sells from there, undercutting the local stores, noting that “a lot of people are doing” the same thing. Then, there’s this:

And the food-stamp fraud doesn’t stop there. She [Maria-Teresa] said her sister has Bronx grocers ring up bogus $250 transactions with her EBT card.

In exchange, the stores hand her $200 cash and pocket the rest. No goods are exchanged. Instead, Maria-Teresa’s sister sends the money to Santiago — when she’s not spending it on liquor or other nonfood items.

‘We do it all the time, and a lot of people do this,’ Maria-Teresa said. ‘It’s a way of laundering money, but it’s easier because it’s free.’

“Free” she says. Well, the $327,507 portion of the (current) national debt that I apparently “owe” says otherwise. Now, this was in 2013. How much worse do you think this scam is at this point, 12 years later? Consider these numbers:

This is not help, this is fraud and waste. 👇
Actually it is a Democrat bribe for votes!
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America spends $7.8B monthly on SNAP.

If ILLEGALS were removed from SNAP the cost would reduce 70%.

If all benefits were CUT OFF they would LEAVE.

45% of ALL AFGHANI’s living… pic.twitter.com/EQ03qGNvXY

— EDIGuy (@EDIGuy01) October 29, 2025

How many Somalians in Somalia are going to go hungry when Minnesota EBT coffers don’t get filled? Probably a lot, and I’m okay with that.

So, I propose we run a little experiment, to at least get some idea of how widespread this de facto foreign remittance scheme is: maintain the SNAP pause for 30 straight days, even if the shutdown ends:

I want SNAP to shut down for a month just to observe how much foreign remittances plummet in that month

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) October 28, 2025

When you look at the average food-stamp user, I think a 30-day fast will do them a world good:

Woman says it’s “time to flip some f*cking tables” when SNAP benefits go away. pic.twitter.com/tAZmomQQHo

— EBT of TikTok (@EBTofTikTok) October 28, 2025

They’ll be healthier than they would be if they were to spend another month scarfing down 5,000 calories a day on processed junk food, synthetic dyes, and seed oils.

Image from Grok.