PELHAM – Pelham Police Chief Larry Palmer requested at a Pelham City Council meeting on Monday, Feb. 21, that the business licenses for two Pelham businesses, CashMax and Cash 101, be revoked following the arrest of the owners of the businesses in connection with a federal investigation being conducted by the United States Secret Service.

Cash 101 is located at 3183 Pelham Pkwy Suite B, and CashMax is located at 3569 Pelham Parkway Suite 11.

Palmer said he was notified of the investigation in October 2016. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that CashMax and Cash 101, which are both owned by a husband and wife, were accepting stolen merchandise at both business locations.

After filing search warrants, Palmer said overwhelming evidence was found at both of the businesses. The husband and wife team and several of their employees were arrested.

“The amount of evidence is overwhelming,” Palmer said. “I feel very strongly that we need to revoke the business licenses for these two businesses.”

The husband and wife are accused of paying pennies on the dollar for stolen merchandise and then reselling it. At the local level, the crime amounts to the charge of receiving stolen property.

“This is a federal case, it’s not the Pelham Police Department’s investigation,” Palmer said. “This could be tied to a criminal enterprise and there could be some racketeering charges coming out of this at the federal level. The investigation is ongoing.”

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office also assisted the Secret Service with the investigation.

Electronics such as smart devices, smart thermostats, calculators and portable cell phone chargers were recovered at the businesses.

“Normally when we’re gathering evidence during a search warrant we just need a pickup truck, but we had to get a tractor-trailer to carry evidence from these establishments,” Palmer said.

By the time the searches were complete, the tractor-trailer was full, he said.

Palmer said he couldn’t release the names of the individuals arrested because the investigation is a federal case, not a PPD case.

The Pelham City Council is consulting with the city’s lawyer to determine the best way to handle the situation.