Crime & Safety

Local 7-Eleven Store Re-Opens Following Federal Raid

Port Jefferson Station location was among several raided by federal agents on Monday.

The 7-Eleven store located at the corner of Route 347 and Old Town Road in Port Jefferson Station is open for business once again, after federal agents raided the store Monday in an investigation into labor practices and the harboring of illegal immigrants.

Store management said the location re-opened on Monday night but declined to comment otherwise.

A 7-Eleven spokesman said the Port Jefferson Station store is, for now, being operated as a corporate entity.

Authorities on Monday indicted nine people from New York and Virginia – including a South Setauket man – for smuggling illegal immigrants into the country and forcing them to work long hours for minimal pay at several Long Island 7-Eleven stores. 

According to a federal attorney, Farrukh Baig, of Head of the Harbor, along with his wife Bushra and six others were allegedly involved in a scheme to force illegal immigrant labor to work long hours in their 7-Eleven franchises, skirting labor laws by using stolen identities to mask the actual time their workers spent on the clock. South Setauket resident Malik Yousaf was among those indicted.

The Baigs, along with six others, are alleged to have forced their employees – all, undocumented immigrants – to work long hours for low wages, getting around the system by using false identities to mask the time they actually spent on the clock.

Farrukh Baig owned eight 7-Eleven franchises across Long Island, including two locations in Smithtown and one each in Islip, Selden, Sag Harbor, Greenport, Nesconset, Cutchogue and Port Jefferson Station.

Compounding the crime, authorities said Baig then paid the illegal workers a fraction of their actual earnings and forced them to live in housing Baig and his family owned in exchange for rent taken out of their meager cash-only pay.

All defendants in the case pleaded not guilty during their court arraignments Monday. They were detained without bail, according to the Department of Justice.

With reporting by Joseph Pinciaro and Sara Walsh.


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