Press Release: May 16, 2012 Village Valley, CA.
Valley police broke up a home-based business in the Valley Glen section of town that sold counterfeit parve chocolate chips to unsuspecting kollel wives in the greater LA area. Five women were arrested and charged with trafficking stolen goods and evading taxes. Eighteen boxes of dairy chips were seized in the raid. However police indicated that only 12 boxes are currently accounted for.
Officers responded to a home in the 12000 block of Burbank Boulevard at about 8:45 p.m. after receiving a call saying there was drug deal of some sort in progress, Sgt. Joe Tradys said.
Instead of entering the home, police officers said they could hear the deal going on in the minivan parked in the driveway. Women were seen carrying shopping bags from the van all day long, Sgt. Tradys said.
Police smelled a “strong odor” of chocolate coming from the area, and after getting search warrants, Tradys said they found the boxes of chips along with empty chocolate chip bags, a label machine, and a bag sealer. The group is alleged to have acquired regular dairy chocolate chips and then repackaged them into an old stock of stolen chip bags from Trader Joe’s. The counterfeit product was made to look like parve chips, and apparently sold for upwards of $10 per bag.
Ten men were arrested inside the home for being present during the raid, and additional charges were pending, Tradys said. However a spokesman for the men claimed they were performing a ritual called “Maaahriv with Tehilim” — a prayer for the restoration of parve foods.
The investigation is ongoing.
Local informants told our crime-hotline that illegal sales of parve food items are on the rise after the OU and OK kosher organizations declared their so-called “War on Parve.” Professor Willow Branchlover of UC Berkley tells us this is an expected reaction. When the power brokers and special interest groups try to limit freedom, the people will revolt. And they have. Making parve illegal has resulted in wasting millions of dollars in public funds. It has resulted in nothing more than criminalizing those who bake parve with dairy equipment.
A spokesman for the OK declined to comment on this matter, but documents found in the trash bins near the OU offices indicate distress over the failure of the OU-DE warning label.
In a surprise alliance with the Jewish community, activists from the Lactose Intolerant Skinheads of America said they support the Jews on this matter.
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