Prosecutors announced on Monday that nine people were accused of a suspected plan that smuggled at least 200 million US dollars from Los Angeles and Changtan ports from Los Angeles and Changtan ports.
According to the US Prosecutor’s Office, the conspiracy between the executives of the logistics company, the warehouse owner and the truck driver are the warehouse that transports the transport container to the industrial city, uninstall the prohibited items, and replace it with “filling” goods to “fill” goods. Customs officials can then check the container.
The eight defendants in the 15 prosecutors have been arrested. Prosecutor said Weijun Zheng, a 57 -year -old chief defendant at Domond Bar, said the company controlled several logistics companies in Los Angeles and planned the plan, but it was still in China. Zheng He’s other defendants were charged with smuggling and broke the customs and conspiracy.
Prosecutors said that in order to avoid discovery, the defendant violated and deleted the lock -up security seal. These sealing parts could only be opened by customs officials and replaced them with pseudoists with the same unique figures.
Investigators seized $ 130 million inbound products, including forgery shoes, perfumes, luxury handbags, clothing and watches. Authorities say smuggling products also include illegal and dangerous chemicals, as well as unspeakable foods and drugs that constitute risks to consumers.
Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for the US Customs and Border Protection, said the allegations announced on Monday that the allegations involved the largest trade fraud recorded by the Los Angeles Long Beach Port Comprehensive Building.
Authorities in Los Angeles and Changtan Port regularly intercepted various forgery products from electronics, clothing and handbags to guitar and engines. In recent years, they have confiscated the transportation of prohibited chemicals, plants and animal products, weapon parts and forged coins. In 2022, the US Customs and Border Protection announced that the port seized a counterfeit product worth $ 1 billion in one year, which was a record driven by orgasm in online shopping in the big age.
Although customs officials have strict standards to prevent tampering with security sealing before inspection, the authorities acknowledge that the plan has exposed serious vulnerability in the most busy port complex of the United States. The Los Angeles Chang Beach Port processed about 30 % of international marine goods to enter the country, and only thousands of transport containers running thousands of transport containers per day were opened and checked.
“After so many activities, the multinational criminal organization has a extensive seat that can operate and use loopholes, and the accused defendant makes full use of the accused defendant,” the special agent of the US Department of Land Security Eddy (EDDY Wang) said at a press conference held at the port of Los Angeles on Monday.
US customs and border protection measures have taken measures to solve the loopholes found in the investigation.
“I don’t fully understand its meaning, because I think it will bring their own risks, but they have determined this problem and took measures to solve it.”
McNeari said: “The prohibition of entering the United States and the uncontrolled items threatened the health and well -being of our citizens, and the smugglers threatened our national security by allowing dangerous items to enter the situation without discovery.”
Prosecutors said the plan started operating at least from August 2023 to June 2024 and was responsible for smuggling products from China at least $ 200 million. It was discovered by the US Customs and Border Protecting Agricultural Experts on the routine inspection of the goods. They noticed that the security seal seemed to have tampered with, and the internal goods did not match the obvious things.
“He immediately informed his supervisor,” said Cheryl Davies, Los Angeles, Los Angeles on -site operation director of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. “And they quickly realized that before sending the goods to the CBP for inspection, the original goods seemed to have been unloaded and replaced by household goods.”
Prosecutors said the forged security seal used to deceive customs officials was also transported from China to the United States. The plan is beneficial to the truck driver involved. They usually earn 200 to 300 US dollars in each transportation container, but the income of each illegal cargo is about $ 10,000.
