ARLINGTON, Va. — The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) here pointed to the takedown of a nationally organized retail crime (ORC) ring in San Jose, Calif., as evidence of the need for federal legislation to combat the growing problem of ORC. San Jose police, along with the IRS and the FBI, announced yesterday more than a dozen arrests, seizing massive quantities of cash and stolen retail merchandise; several retailers, including Safeway and Walgreen, cooperated in the investigation. “Without a federal law targeting this kind of criminal enterprise, these crimes will continue to occur and unwitting consumers will remain at risk,” said Paul Jones, RILA’s vice president of asset protection, in a statement. “The products that are stolen and sold as a result of ORC are often unsafe and threaten the well-being of consumers.”

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