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Suspect sentenced for multi-state bar code scheme, child porn

Prucha- photo Polk County
Prucha- photo Polk County

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors say an Iowa man who ran a bar code theft ring in several states has been given 70 years in federal prison.

Bradley Prucha was sentenced Thursday. He’d been convicted of conspiracy, mail fraud, production and possession of child pornography and other crimes.

Prosecutors say Prucha printed bar code stickers and placed them on store items that would ring up at lower prices. He then had accomplices return them for refunds on their full prices or sold them online. Prosecutors say the West Des Moines resident ran the scheme in Iowa and surrounding states including Kansas.

He’d previously been convicted of a similar scheme in Florida.

Prosecutors also said Prucha recruited teenage girls for the scam and paid them for sex at sessions that he recorded without their knowledge.

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