Investigators from three federal agencies executed search warrants Tuesday at seven Arkansas convenience stores, said Dennis Holenstein, a spokesman for Internal Revenue Service criminal investigations division in Nashville, Tenn.
Warrants were executed at five stores in Fort Smith, one in Hot Springs and one in Van Buren, Holenstein said. He said the IRS was working on the case with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"There's not really a lot I can say at this point other than confirming that we did have agents out working with the FBI, USDA and Fort Smith Police Department to execute some search warrants today," Holenstein said Tuesday. "There are no details, unfortunately."
Debra Green, a spokesman for the FBI in Little Rock, said the IRS was the lead agency in the searches and that the FBI assisted.
Holenstein said the stores were temporarily closed during the searches Tuesday, but none of the stores were permanently closed.
"To my knowledge, they'll be closed while we're on the premises but then everything will be turned back over to the owners," he said.
Harry Zaman answered the telephone late Tuesday afternoon at Fenny's convenience store in Fort Smith and confirmed that the store had been closed during the day while a search warrant was executed.
"I guess it was just a regular routine check," said Zaman, the store's owner.
When asked additional questions, he said, "I have customers," and hung up the phone.
Metro on 01/27/2016