Nine owners and managers of more than a dozen 7-Eleven stores on Long Island and in Virginia were charged Monday in a scheme to traffic in workers from Pakistan to work their stores, provide them with identities stolen from U.S. citizens and steal a substantial portion of their wages, prosecutors said.



The workers were allegedly forced to live in housing provided by the franchise owners and pay them cash rent, in addition to the funds that were skimmed off the top of their paychecks when the store owners received payroll from corporate headquarters, authorities said.



More than a dozen workers believed to have been brought to the country illegally were taken into immigration custody, though the scheme involved the hirings of at least 50 illegal immigrants since 2000, according to court documents.



Investigators executed search warrants at about 30 7-Eleven stores across the country as part of the probe, including 10 on Long Island. Suffolk County police, federal Homeland Security investigators, IRS and NYPD officers were seen entering several of the store locations in New York Monday.

