A series of cooking grease thefts from John D. McGurk’s last summer looked at first like the work of an addled thief committing a crime of convenience. A federal indictment now suggests it was part of something much bigger: a multi-state, million-dollar conspiracy trafficking in stolen fryer oil.
The thefts from the Soulard bar happened over the course of three nights in April and May of last year. Ronald Braden, 39, of Republic, in southwest Missouri, allegedly made off with thousands of pounds of grease from the restaurant, valued at more than $2,000. He was captured on surveillance footage and eventually charged with two counts of felony stealing.
But Braden wasn’t taking the pilfered grease to some unscrupulous recycling depot right down the road…