HOUSTON – A man and woman are wanted, accused of a scheme where they used other people’s SNAP benefits to purchase items for a store they were running out of their apartment.
Joel Pizano and Maria Delgado are charged with supplemental nutrition assistance program electronic violation. The two were charged following an investigation by the Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
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Court documents allege the two had been conducting the scheme since January 2019.
On Oct. 14, 2024, authorities were looking through EBT transaction records and found someone used an EBT card to make three purchases at a Sam’s Club. Two $650 charges and one $600 charge was found on the card. Law enforcement found through video footage the items purchased were bulk quantities of drinks, chips, and other snacks.
On Oct. 24, 2024, it was discovered the same EBT card was used to again make bulk purchases of various drinks and snacks. Authorities were able to obtain information on the membership used to make the purchases. It was registered to Pizano. Delgado and another person were also listed on the membership. But the EBT card used to make the purchases was registered to someone different from the two.
Law enforcement was also unable to find any records of any businesses the two may have had, according to court records.
In Jan. 2025, law enforcement reviewed recent EBT transactions and found the same card had been utilized in November, December, and January to again make bulk purchases. Camera footage from the Sam’s Club shows Pizano and Delgado making the purchases. The same thing happened again in March.
Through a subpoena, authorities were able to get the purchase history from Pizano’s membership at Sam’s Club and found over a six-year period, 17 different EBT cards were fraudulently used to make nearly $75,000 in purchases, according to court records.
The woman whose EBT card had been being used was interviewed where she told authorities she sold Pizano and Delgado her EBT card. She told investigators she sold the card for money to buy non-food related items and the two had given her between $200-$300 for the card. She also told investigators the two ran a store out of their apartment.
Investigators visited the apartment listed to the two and when Delgado answered the door, she asked Pizano to come outside the apartment. Investigators saw a sales rack in the living room stocked with various snacks, according to the records.
The records say during an interview, Pizano was mostly silent, but Delgado allegedly admitted to people in their apartment complex starting to sell them their benefits, but said she didn’t really know them. She also denied making a profit from the exchange, but said they may occasionally buy a package of meat for themselves, according to the documents.
Delgado also allegedly told investigators they used the EBT benefits that didn’t belong to them to buy items and then sell them out of their apartment, the documents say.
The documents also say during the interview, two young girls approached Pizano and Delgado wanting to buy something, but they were turned away.
Charges have been accepted against the two, but they are not in custody.