District Attorney Warren Montgomery said that a St. Tammany Parish grand jury recently charged Dustin Ray Hughes, 32, of Angie, and Sharon D. Snelgrove, 38, of Carriere, Miss., with racketeering and multiple theft charges for an alleged operation that used account information from one company to make fraudulent purchases from another.

Montgomery said that Hughes, a former employee of Southern Electric Company, is accused of placing fraudulent orders with O’Reilly Auto Parts on multiple occasions with account information stolen from Southern Electric. Snelgrove is accused of assisting Hughes by obtaining and transporting merchandise that she knew was stolen, Montgomery said.

More than 1,000 products, valued at between $20,000 and $25,000, are alleged to have been obtained fraudulently from 14 jurisdictions over two states.

Both defendants are charged with one count each of racketeering, seven counts each of theft of items valued at $1,000 but less than $5,000, two counts each of theft of items valued at less than $1,000, and one count each of misdemeanor theft (Class 4, less than $1,000)

Assistant District Attorney Butch Wilson presented the case to the grand jury, and Walter “Nick” Burtanog IV investigated.