Remember Lester? Every pawnshop transaction is reported to the police department in some places to stop fencing and recover stolen property.

The article mentions a search warrant, and that local police had first searched the records, which shown an anomaly, which triggered a local investigation.

From the Article:

> ...the FBI said in a search warrant affidavit unsealed last month

> A police detective last summer noticed that one of the drivers had dozens of pawn shop transactions, and thus began an investigation...

> The investigation began last summer when a police detective in Auburn, a south Seattle suburb, was perusing a record of pawn shop sales...

It's not clear why the police were looking at the transaction records, but it's possible they were investigating a theft.

There's a statewide database that every transaction gets reported to.

“According to the search warrant affidavit, two storefront businesses posing as pawn shops bought the goods from shoplifters, then had the items shipped to Amazon warehouses, where they were stored until sold online.”