Federal authorities in Chicago have charged four people with distributing more than 100,000 pounds of tainted Mexican cheese they say the suspects would “wash” and resell after it was returned by customers because of mold or fungus.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office said Thursday the four suspects would scrape the mold or fungus they could see and then resell it.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports the suspects tried to hide what they were doing by lying to inspectors from the federal Food and Drug Administration and sending false documents to the agency.
In all, more than 110,000 pounds of tainted Mexican cheese was shipped out in 2007, according to a 
The indictment doesn’t allege any instances of illness or other public health consequences attributed to the cheese, though inspectors later determined samples of the cheese were contaminated with salmonella, E. coli and other illness-causing bacteria.
One defendant owned an Illinois company that imported the dried Mexican cheese, and another owned a Wisconsin company, which also had a facility in Elmhurst, that distributed the cheese nationwide.
The Wisconsin company distributed the cheese to retail stores in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Georgia and Texas under the brand name Queso Cincho De Guerrero.
A recall was issued in September 2007 for the dry, hard Mexican cheese, sold in 35- and 40-pound wheels.