Feds: Drugs made at kosher meat plant

Federal authorities charged that a methamphetamine laboratory was operating at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and that employees carried weapons to work.

The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.

In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors. The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture.

According to the application, a former plant supervisor told investigators that some 80 percent of the workforce was illegal. They included rabbis responsible for kosher supervision, who the source believed entered the United States from Canada without proper immigration documents. The source did not provide evidence for his suspicion about the rabbis.

The source also claimed to have confronted a human resources manager with Social Security cards from three employees that had the same number. The manager laughed when the matter was raised, the source said.

At least 300 people were arrested Monday during the raid, for which federal authorities had rented an expansive fairground nearby to serve as a processing center for detainees.

The search warrant application said that 697 plant employees were believed to have violated federal laws.

Agriprocessors officials did not return calls from JTA seeking comment.

Immigration raid: biggest kosher meatpacker started by Jews in 1987

Agriprocessors Inc. opened in Postville nearly 20 years ago, bringing with it a promise of jobs and a culture that changed the small, rural northeast Iowa town.

Aaron Rubashkin came from New York to open what has become the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant.

Shutting down production at the plant will have a significant impact on the kosher meat sales, said Menachem Lubinsky, chief executive of Luicom Marketing and editor of KosherToday.

“They are a major supplier to retail establishments all over the world,” Lubinsky said.

The company processes and packages kosher meat and poultry products under the brand Aaron’s Best that it supplies to small grocery stores and meat markets across the United States. The company also processes non-kosher meat products including Iowa Best Beef.

The plant has been cited for health and safety violations over the years. At the end of March, the Iowa Division of Labor Services cited the company for 39 workplace safety and health standards and fined the company $182,000.

An attorney for the company has said the issues have been resolved.

Calls to the meatpacking plant Monday were not returned.

Agriprocessors also operates a meatpacking plant in Gordon, Neb., called Local Pride LLC, which the Rubashkins opened in 2005.

The Rubashkins, Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn, N.Y., came to Postville in the late 1980s and created Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant run by observant Jews.

The Rubashkins have been in the kosher meat business since Aaron Rubashkin immigrated to the United States in 1952. Rubashkin and his sons, Sholom and Heshy, relocated their business to Iowa to be closer to livestock supplies. The company bought the former HyGrade meat processing plant in Postville in 1987 .

Sales and production figures are not made public by the privately held company. Link