OC food truck at center of intricate SNAP fraud scheme busted by feds

The owner of a Southern California food truck was arrested recently for illegally processing an unusually large amount of food stamp transactions, according to photos and a criminal complaint obtained by The California Post.

It comes as the state contends with SNAP fraud estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

Investigators had been snooping around food truck Soriano Produce, owned by Esmeralda Soriano, which primarily operates out of Lyon Street in Santa Ana and sells fruit and produce on a “low volume.”

It started accepting SNAP and EBT benefits in May 2023, according to the complaint.

Through undercover operations and surveillance, an officer discovered that the truck had a countertop checkout area that had food and non-food items. One can use SNAP to purchase food items, but non-food items such as houseware and toiletry are ineligible.

Dwight Llewellyn, an agent for Homeland Security Investigations, said the food truck had one device to process all food stamp transactions, but the record of transactions appeared sketchy.

“Based on my training and experience, the lack of scanners, coupled with consistent high dollar transactions, and rapid back-to-back transactions, are indicators of possible fraud,” he said in the complaint.

The amount of SNAP money redeemed by Soriano compared to other nearby, similar vendors was also suspiciously large, the complaint said. Soriano Produce has one register, an average purchase amount of $151.41, and store dollar volume totaling $640,924.

On the other hand, three other vendors nearby had an average purchase amount of below $55 and totals less than $100,000 from April 2025 to April 2026.

In fact, Soriano made more EBT money than full-blown supermarkets and grocery stores, the complaint calculated.

In May of this year, undercover officers were able to trade $100 in SNAP for $50 in cash, they said. Soriano reportedly told the officer, “If you come back, don’t ask my husband because he would not do it.”

Undercover agents again approached Soriano later in the month, who charged the EBT card $172 and gave the officer $80 in cash.

Photos shared with The Post show a Homeland Security agent outside of a white food truck that appeared to be in operation when the arrest occurred. Some items on sale included bags of chips and other snacks.

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Her alleged violation carries severe federal penalties, including up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

The latest bust comes just a week after federal agents cracked down on another alleged SNAP fraud ring in Los Angeles, arresting a cashier accused of pocketing kickbacks from welfare recipients in exchange for fake purchases. Armored federal agents, backed by uniformed LAPD officers, descended on Escamex Party Supplies in Skid Row during the raid.

The operation was one of at least four carried out across California last week by the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations as part of a sweeping crackdown on retailers accused of food stamp fraud.

California operates the nation’s largest SNAP program, distributing roughly $12.5 billion in benefits each year. About 11% of those payments are issued in error — most often because recipients provide false or incomplete household information or due to administrative mistakes, according to the California Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor.

“These programs are administered by the state, and the state have not done a good enough job to weed out the fraudsters,” Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor Bill Essayli had told The Post.

The USDA also recently issued violation notices to 33 SNAP-authorized retailers across the city for the illegal exchange of SNAP benefits for cash and the sale of prohibited items such as alcohol and tobacco.