Channel 2 Action News was there when federal agents raided six local grocery stores.
Agents locked the doors so customers couldn’t walk in.
Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes learned the investigation is tied to alleged tax evasion. We were there when agents carried out boxes and boxes of evidence.
According to the secretary of state’s website, all six of the Super Mercado Jalisco stores spread across metro Atlanta -- from Gwinnett to Cobb to Fulton counties -- all owned by the same man.
Fernandes watched as agents spent more than five hours inside the Marietta grocery store on South Cobb Drive after serving a warrant here around 10 a.m. Thursday.
It was one of six stores federal agents had warrants for and raided at the same time.
Homeland Security and IRS agents told Channel 2 Action News they can’t talk about why they were there, but a worker told us it’s a tax evasion investigation and illegal immigrants are involved.
Fernandes tried talking to customers who stood outside the store watching officers do their work, but no one wanted to talk on camera.
So Fernandes went to a nearby plaza and asked people what they thought about multi-county investigation.
“It sounds scary, and they had better know why they’re specifically going there,” said one resident.
Investigators couldn’t say how many people were arrested today because many of these raids were still going on.
The CEO of Super Mercado Jalisco said:
“Super Mercado Jalisco is disappointed in the heavy-handed tactics of the federal government. Super Mercado Jalisco maintains the strictest standards on compliance and completion of all of the necessary paperwork required by the federal government.”
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