(KWQC) - Federal prosecutors in Des Moines have charged 13 people in a multistate used‑cooking‑oil theft ring, a kind of “grease heist” operation that stretched across 10 states and allegedly laundering profits through a network of warehouses.

Prosecutors say the defendants are Chinese nationals and participated in a racketeering and interstate-theft conspiracy involving used cooking oil collected from restaurant tanks in Iowa and Illinois and at least eight other states, including Tennessee, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Nebraska, Missouri and Kentucky.

The oil, which can be refined into biodiesel and resold, was allegedly hauled by truck to warehouses in Nevada, Iowa, Tennessee, Alabama, and Ohio, where it was sold and the profits laundered.

Those charged include residents of Iow

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