By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Investigators reported seeing about 100 pallets of baby formula - and some items they said could be used to illegally restamp outdated formula with new, false expiration dates - when they previously searched a businessman's warehouse.

So authorities, citing potential risks to infants' health, returned to Twins Wholesale Inc. with intention to seize the formula and other materials, according to a search warrant released Tuesday.

West Chester police said they escorted U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators to the warehouse at 4610 Interstate Drive late Monday, and remained there while the FDA searched for several hours.

It was the second time in two weeks that a federal search warrant was executed at the warehouse connected to Ali Aladimi, 41, of Beavercreek, Ohio, near Dayton. The Yemen-born man is at the center of "an ongoing federal and local investigation that has many aspects to it," said Jim Turgal, spokesman for the FBI's Cincinnati office. "I'm not sure anyone can say what the end result is going to be."

Mr. Aladimi's attorney has suggested that his client's Middle Eastern ties have drawn heightened scrutiny.

Mr. Aladimi is a married father of six and a naturalized citizen who has been in the United States for two decades. He has been a target of federal investigations since 1999.

He remains in custody without bond and is scheduled for arraignment Thursday on federal stolen-goods charges involving Gerber baby products found Dec. 30 in the Twins warehouse. Three out-of-state men have been ordered detained in that case. A fifth suspect, a Tennessee woman, also has been federally charged but is free on her promise to appear in court.

Max Kravitz of Columbus, one of Mr. Aladimi's lawyers, said he intends to appeal Mr. Aladimi's bond and "address any remaining issues that may be out there" within the next couple days.

Mr. Kravitz said he had not yet had time to carefully examine Monday's search warrant.

Federal authorities have not released the inventories of items seized in either warehouse search, or from the Jan. 4 search of Mr. Aladimi's home, said Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Columbus.

However, a Gerber spokeswoman said the shipment missing from Marshall County, Miss., included 4,000 cases of baby food: jarred foods, cereal and baked goods. A theft report does not indicate an estimated value of the stolen goods, said Marshall County Sheriff's Chief Investigator Randy Harper.

A truck driver reported he had left the 53-foot trailer parked at a highway gas station on Dec. 27. The driver told police the trailer, laden with baby products, had disappeared by the time he returned to retrieve it on Dec. 29, Mr. Harper said.

The Dec. 30 raid included multiple local and federal agents, who shared information with the FDA.

In a sworn statement applying for Monday's second search warrant, Marc S. Griswold, senior special agent with the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, said officers probing the stolen Gerber shipment noticed large quantities of Enfamil and Similac baby formula in the Twins warehouse.

Those officers also had spotted "two or three machines used to reshrink wrap products, a stamping machine that imprinted the words, `use by this date,' a quantity of rubbing alcohol and what appeared to be new boxes used to package infant formula," Mr. Griswold said.

In the past, criminals have used those materials to remove old expiration dates from formula containers, restamp the containers with new dates, put the containers into a counterfeit box then shrink-wrap them again "so as to appear new," Mr. Griswold said.

"Certain criminal enterprises specialize in the illegal repackaging and resale of expired infant formulas," he said.

On Friday, to confirm the formula and related items were still there, West Chester police went into a publicly accessible parking area of the Twins warehouse and looked through a window, Mr. Griswold's affidavit says.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Hogan signed the search warrant Monday.

Baby formula thefts and illegal relabeling, repackaging and sales have been reported on the rise across the nation.

In Cincinnati during 2001, at least a dozen people were accused in an elaborate fencing operation involving sales of stolen goods, including relabeled baby formula, at four neighborhood markets.

Baby formula may be resold at a profit in corner convenience stores or in foreign countries. Drug dealers also may use it to "cut" with cocaine or methamphetamine, so they sell less of the actual drug and increase their profits. E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com