The Boston Marathon bombers collected more than $100,000 in food stamps and welfare while Tamerlan Tsarnaev was radicalizing.
Congress held a hearing on food stamp fraud this week and put the USDA's top investigator under oath.
What he said about where your tax dollars are going right now is worse than the Tsarnaevs.
Food Stamp Fraud Funded Drugs Guns and Terrorism in California Says USDA Inspector General
USDA Inspector General John Walk testified before the House Oversight Subcommittee and described a Southern California investigation where gang members converted SNAP benefits into cash and crack cocaine – then bought firearms with the money.
"I'll just repeat that," Walk told Congress. "SNAP dollars, federal tax dollars, used to buy drugs and guns."
Walk didn't stop there.
He told lawmakers that food stamp fraud proceeds have reached people with documented ties to terrorist groups, foreign adversary nations, and transnational criminal organizations.
This is a $100 billion federal program.
Walk warned that skilled criminals can place an EBT skimming device on a payment terminal in seven seconds – long enough to capture card data, clone the account, and drain it clean when benefits load at the start of the month.
He recounted speaking with a New York father of five whose entire SNAP balance was stolen after criminals hit his card.
"I have heard many stories from victims like these working moms and dads," Walk said. "They're why SNAP fraud matters."
The Secret Service called its coordinated enforcement sweep earlier this year the largest EBT fraud crackdown in agency history.
Democrat States Blocking EBT Fraud Investigation as DOJ Files Suit
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins requested five years of SNAP beneficiary and transaction data from all 50 states.
Twenty-nine states cooperated – nearly all Republican-governed.
From that partial dataset, USDA flagged $3 billion in potential fraud and waste – payments tied to 186,000 deceased individuals, 442,000 applicants carrying fraudulent Social Security numbers, and hundreds of thousands of people drawing duplicate benefits across multiple states.
Rep. Tim Burchett said: "Federal taxpayers deserve to know what Governor Newsom and his counterparts in other states are trying to hide – and at what cost."
California. New York. Illinois.
The states with the most SNAP recipients in the country refused to hand over the data.
Walk told the subcommittee that without state records, investigators cannot stop fraud before the money goes out the door.
"We cannot pay and chase our way to stopping SNAP fraud," he said. "We need to guard the front door."
The improper payment rate reached 10.9 percent last year – equal to $10.2 billion in benefits paid to people who shouldn't have received them.
Food Stamp Trafficking Has Funded Terrorism Since the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Washington has known about this for decades.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was partially funded through a food stamp coupon fraud ring – a fact that came out in congressional hearings at the time.
The Tsarnaev family – the Boston Marathon bombers – collected more than $100,000 in food stamps, housing vouchers, and welfare benefits from 2002 through 2012 while Tamerlan Tsarnaev was radicalizing.
The Government Accountability Office has estimated that SNAP trafficking alone – stores exchanging benefits for cash – is a $5 billion annual industry.
Over 670,000 households had their SNAP benefits stolen between 2023 and 2025, according to government reporting.
Romanian criminal networks have been prosecuted for operating EBT skimming rings across multiple states.
A $66 million fraud scheme in New York – described by prosecutors as one of the largest food stamp frauds in U.S. history – involved a corrupt USDA employee selling access to federal databases to organized crime figures.
Organized international crime rings are treating the food stamp program like an ATM – and the Democrat states protecting them from oversight are making it worse.
Walk told Congress what has to happen: share the data, block the fraud before payment, and stop letting criminals install skimmers in seven seconds while Democrat governors hide behind privacy lawsuits.
"We need to guard the front door," he said.
The DOJ filed suit this week against Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota to force compliance.
Sources:
- Amanda Macias, "SNAP food stamp fraud has nefarious terrorism links, top Agriculture watchdog warns Congress," Fox News, June 28, 2026.
- "Hearing Wrap Up: SNAP Integrity is Undermined by Waste, Fraud, and Abuse," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, June 25, 2026.
- "Burchett Opens Hearing on Combating Fraud in SNAP," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, June 25, 2026.
- "USDA Participates in Targeted SNAP Benefit Fraud Operations," USDA, May 2, 2025.
- "Justice Department Sues States for Failing to Provide SNAP Data," DOJ Office of Public Affairs, June 26, 2026.
- "USDA SNAP Program Integrity Data Team: Preliminary Report," Food and Nutrition Administration, May 14, 2026.
