Two women were sentenced to 20 years by a judge in Canton after pleading guilty to violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in a series of thefts from stores in throughout Georgia, including Buford, Cumming, and Flowery Branch.
Ebony Fallon Washington, 43, and Melissa Holland, 46, both of New York, operated a multi-state organized retail theft scheme preying on Walmart and Target stores.
From June 2022 through August 2024, the defendants stole nearly $141,000 in merchandise in 187 incidents in 21 states, according to the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office.
Their scheme involved purchasing Apple AirPods with cash, using tools to remove the genuine products from their packaging, replacing them with lower-value items, resealing the boxes to appear unopened, and returning the fraudulent products for full cash refunds. In some cases, they used the refunded money to purchase additional AirPods, continuing the cycle. The defendants kept the authentic Apple products to resell for profit.