Two brothers from Romania led an organized fraud ring that used SNAP benefits to buy thousands of dollars of food at warehouse clubs in North Carolina and resell it, authorities say.

The pair were arrested Aug. 1 at a Charlotte storage unit after they bought $15,000 of food at a Sam’s Club in Matthews, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said.

Marian Ovidiu Dumitru, 37, and Catalin Dumitru, 39, pleaded guilty to wire fraud July 2 in federal court in Charlotte, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina said.

The brothers, who entered the country illegally, were part of a ring that stole over $760,000 from the federal food program in New Jersey, Massachusetts and other states, the attorney’s office said.

The group used skimmers to steal data from electronic benefits cards used by SNAP recipients and put the information on counterfeit cards. They used the fake cards to make bulk purchases of coffee, candy, energy drinks, baby formula and other goods at North Carolina stores, including over $15,600 at a warehouse club in Gastonia and over $19,000 from another in Pineville, justice officials said.

The scheme had over 10 victims and caused some of them “substantial hardship,” officials said. SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is a federally funded effort that helps low-income families buy groceries.

“These individuals came to the United States illegally and preyed on some of our most vulnerable citizens — those receiving SNAP benefits,” U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in a news release. “They stole benefits from those who actually need them and then resold products bought with those benefits for their own profit.”

In addition to the food recovered at the Charlotte storage unit, investigators found counterfeit bank cards with cloned SNAP account information at the home of one of the brothers, authorities said.

The SBI helped Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, in the investigation and surveillance of the brothers. The SBI put total losses from the scheme at more than $1,160,324.

The brothers each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. A sentencing date has not been set.

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