Two men have been arrested and charged with stealing $21,769 worth of alcohol from the Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control in eight incidents over a three-month period, according to county police.
One of the men, DLC employee and Bowie resident Kelvin Eugene Snowden Jr., 31, allegedly broke into box trucks parked at the department’s warehouse on Edison Drive in Gaithersburg in a series of thefts that began in February, police said. He is now on unpaid leave, according to the DLC.
Snowden would climb over the perimeter fence after hours and break the security seals on multiple trucks to steal boxes of alcohol, which he sold to another suspect, Lanham resident Jean Auguste, 27, in at least one instance, according to police.
The DLC reported the crimes to police after alcohol was stolen from its trucks on Feb. 14 and 24. Six additional thefts occurred as police investigated the crimes, on April 23 and 30 and May 7, 16, 26 and 28.
Police arrested Auguste when a DLC security guard witnessed a theft occurring on video surveillance on May 28. A police officer responded to the scene that night and noticed a Chevrolet Suburban parked in the Lakelands Middle School basketball court, adjacent to the DLC lot. The officer approached the car and identified Auguste as the driver.
Inside the car, the officer found boxes of alcohol that were determined to have been stolen from the DLC, police said, and the officer took Auguste into custody. He was charged with theft of a value between $1,000 and $10,000, conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary and conspiracy in a theft scheme with a value between $10,000 and $100,000, according to court records. He was released on bond May 29.
Detectives later identified the other suspect as Snowden and a warrant for his arrest was issued June 15. Police arrested Snowden on Wednesday and transported him to the Central Processing Unit in Rockville. He faces charges of a theft scheme with a value of $10,000 to $100,000 and malicious destruction of property valued at more than $1,000, according to court records. He was released on bond Wednesday.