The count indictment, returned last month and unsealed Friday, charges nine defendants with conspiracy, smuggling and breaking customs seals. The defendants allegedly took containers flagged for off-site secondary inspection, unloaded the contraband, then stuffed the targeted containers with filler cargo to deceive customs officials and evade law enforcement.
The charges and arrests here demonstrate our commitment to enforce our customs laws and keep the American public safe. Seven defendants were arrested Friday, an eighth was taken into custody Saturday evening, and one defendant is a fugitive. The seven arrested last week were arraigned Friday in United States District Court, where each pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
A trial date was scheduled for March The eighth defendant, who was arrested on unrelated state charges, is expected to be arraigned in federal court in the coming days. The count indictment details a conspiracy to coordinate the shipment of large quantities of contraband from China to the United States through the Port of Los Angeles from at least August to June The defendants charged are:. According to the indictment, Zheng, Wang, Liu and others maintained and operated warehouses to store, conceal and sell large amounts of contraband goods that were illegally imported into the United States from China.
When the contraband containers were selected by U. Customs and Border Protection CBP for inspection, the defendants hired commercial truck drivers to transport the containers from the Los Angeles to locations that the conspirators controlled, including warehouses in the City of Industry that were controlled or managed by Zheng, Wang and others. At these locations, co-conspirators broke the security seals on the shipping containers and removed the contraband from inside.
Then, they affixed counterfeit security seals onto the containers to conceal that cargo had been removed from them. Zheng, Wang and others then directed co-conspirators to transport the containers β after they had been emptied of much of their original cargo and re-secured with counterfeit seals β to CBP-authorized locations for the remaining cargo to be presented to customs officials for inspection.
