Cops: Hazel Crest store busted for reselling stolen liquor

Mamoun A. Jadalla. Photo from Orland Park police.

(HAZEL CREST) Two men were arrested after police busted a Hazel Crest liquor store for buying stolen liquor then reselling it to customers.

Orland Park police began to investigate in July after they noticed a pattern of liquor thefts from retail stores in the southwest suburb.

Investigators later learned Emporium Liquors, at 17559 Kedzie Ave. in Hazel Crest, was purchasing stolen liquor from retail crime suspects, then selling it, police said.

Jagdishbhai M. Patel. Photo from Orland Park police.

Undercover police sold employees supposedly stolen liquor three times over a three-month period, police said.

Authorities executed a search warrant at the Hazel Crest store Friday, and seized cash, liquor, computers, cash registers and business records, police said. Another search warrant was executed at a second Emporium Liquor store at 87 W. Joe Orr Rd. in Chicago Heights, which is under the same ownership.

Mamoun A. Jadalla, 38, of the 8100 block of West Thomas Street in Justice, is charged with continuing a financial crimes enterprise, a felony, police said. He is in custody pending a bond hearing Saturday at 26th and California.

Jagdishbhai M. Patel, 54, of the 15900 block of Westway Walk in Tinley Park, is charged with two misdemeanor counts of theft for possessing stolen property, police said. He posted bond and will next appear in court Dec. 19 at the Markham courthouse.

The Cook County Sheriff’s police and the Illinois Department of Revenue Bureau of Criminal Investigations assisted in the case.