Ahmed Abdul Razaq Al Obaidi
Introduction
Ahmed Abdul Razaq Al Obaidi is a 49-year-old resident of Blaine, Minnesota, whom Minnesota business records identify as the manager of AK Tobacco LLC. On October 21, 2026, he and Muhammad Abdullah Kahn were charged by criminal complaint with knowingly and unlawfully transferring SNAP benefits, and Al Obaidi was arrested that same day. His case reached the public in a distinctive way: it was not announced on its own, but folded into a sweep. On October 30, 2026, the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota announced a benefits-fraud enforcement surge covering 13 defendants charged, convicted, or sentenced in the preceding month, and Al Obaidi’s complaint appears in that release under its “Charges” heading.
Background Information
The programs at the center of the case are SNAP benefits and EBT, both of which the Justice Department describes as parts of “taxpayer-funded” benefit programs targeted by its Minnesota enforcement push. The conduct the release describes is “trafficking”: the announcement says the underlying investigation “identified local businesses engaged in fraudulent use and trafficking of SNAP benefits,” and it separately reports that a store was “identified as a location involved in cash trafficking of EBT benefits” — that is, benefits allegedly converted into cash rather than used as intended. The vehicle for the case is Operation Cold SNAP, a joint effort of the USDA Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations. It was during that operation, per the release, that AK Tobacco LLC was identified as a location involved in cash trafficking of EBT benefits.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. The account below comes from a criminal complaint and DOJ announcements; the allegations are untested, and both men are presumed innocent.
On October 21, 2026, a criminal complaint charged Al Obaidi and Muhammad Abdullah Kahn with knowingly and unlawfully transferring SNAP benefits. The charges resulted from the joint USDA-OIG and Homeland Security Operation Cold SNAP, which identified local businesses engaged in fraudulent use and trafficking of SNAP benefits; during that operation, AK Tobacco LLC was identified as a location involved in cash trafficking of EBT benefits. Minnesota business records identified Al Obaidi as the manager of AK Tobacco, LLC, and investigators identified Kahn as a clerk associated with the store. The release states that Al Obaidi was identified as engaging in EBT/SNAP benefit fraud and was arrested on October 21. The case is being prosecuted by First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph S. Teirab and investigated by USDA-OIG and HSI.
The public record at this point is a single paragraph of allegation, and it stays within its own edges: the release assigns no dollar amount to this case, gives no address for the store, and describes no specific transactions, dates of alleged conduct, or amounts of benefits said to have been transferred. Kahn is named only as a co-charged clerk; nothing further about either man appears in the announcement beyond what is recounted above.
Public Reaction and Consequences
No statement from Al Obaidi, from anyone associated with AK Tobacco LLC, or from a defense attorney appears in the record. What exists is the government’s framing of the surge his case sits in. Between September 30 and the October 30 announcement, the department said, the Fraud Division and the District of Minnesota charged, convicted, or sentenced 13 defendants in schemes causing nearly $83 million in intended losses, including approximately $29.1 million in the newly charged cases — of which Al Obaidi’s complaint, filed October 21, is one, though no individual figure is given for it. The release adds that the DOJ has issued over 1,000 subpoenas and executed over 40 premises warrants in Minnesota this year alone. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said, “Minnesota is the epicenter for fraud in America,” adding that “no one stealing from taxpayer-funded programs is safe.” U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said of the surge’s defendants, “These defendants stole money meant for the vulnerable, and they will be brought to justice.” HSI St. Paul Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard, whose agency investigated Cold SNAP, called fraud against such programs “not a victimless crime.”
Current Status
As of the October 30, 2026 announcement, Al Obaidi has been charged by complaint and has been arrested — on October 21, the same day the complaint charged him. He has not been tried, and nothing in the record shows a conviction. The release documents no initial appearance, arraignment, plea, attorney, or detention decision, and none are supplied here. The department’s own caveat governs: an indictment, information, or complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Before October 2026, Al Obaidi’s footprint in the Justice Department’s account is administrative: Minnesota business records listed him as the manager of AK Tobacco LLC. He is now a federally charged defendant, identified by investigators as having engaged in EBT/SNAP benefit fraud — an allegation, not a finding — in a case announced alongside rhetoric about Minnesota as the center of federal fraud enforcement. The release says nothing about the store’s current operations, any licensing or regulatory action, or his personal circumstances, and this page does not speculate beyond the record. What exists today is a complaint, an arrest, a place in a 13-defendant surge announcement, and a presumption of innocence that stands until a court says otherwise.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota / DOJ Fraud Division, “DOJ’s Fraud Division and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District Minnesota Uncover Nearly $30 Million in Benefits Fraud in Enforcement Surge,” October 30, 2026 — source