BOSTON — He ran a store the size of a parking space. He processed more food stamps than a full supermarket. He traded EBT benefits for liquor. He sold donated famine relief food off his shelves for $8 a pack. And the whole time, he was collecting food stamps himself.

On Monday, Antonio Bonheur, 74, of Mattapan pleaded guilty to federal food stamp fraud and wire fraud charges — admitting to a scheme that drained nearly $7 million from the federal SNAP program out of a 150-square-foot storefront in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood.

Sentencing is set for July 8, 2026 before U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani. He faces up to 20 years on each count.

Jesula Variety Store occupied a single street-facing storefront — roughly 150 square feet. Normal small corner stores redeem maybe a few thousand dollars in SNAP benefits a month. Full-service supermarkets in the same area average about $82,000.

Bonheur's store was processing $100,000 to $500,000 per month.

More than 70% of his transactions exceeded $95 — the kind of basket you'd expect at a grocery store, not a bodega with barely any food on the shelves. Federal investigators flagged the anomalies and moved in.

During undercover operations, agents visited Jesula Variety Store and watched Bonheur himself work the register — personally swiping EBT cards and handing back cash. Four times, on four separate visits, the same thing: SNAP benefits in, cash out.

He also accepted food stamps for liquor. That's illegal on its own — SNAP benefits can't be used to buy alcohol. Bonheur did it anyway.

To hide the money, Bonheur ran the SNAP proceeds through a web of secondary bank accounts — shuffling cash in and out to make it look like legitimate business income.

Here's where it gets darker.

Bonheur's shelves also carried MannaPack meals — pre-packaged food produced by the nonprofit Feed My Starving Children. These meals are purchased entirely through charitable donations and are meant to be shipped to food-insecure children in developing countries. They are never authorized for retail sale.

Bonheur sold them for $8 a package.

Investigators also discovered that while Bonheur was running a multimillion-dollar SNAP fraud operation, he had applied for and received his own SNAP benefits from the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance — making false statements about his income and assets to qualify.

As part of the plea, Bonheur agreed to forfeit nearly $400,000 in seized proceeds. The total fraud is estimated at just under $7 million.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Mallard of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit.