A count indictment levied by the U. The scheme took place from at least August to June , the statement read. The defendants allegedly took containers flagged for off-site secondary inspection by U. Customs and Border Protection CBP , unloaded the contraband, then stuffed the targeted containers with filler cargo to deceive customs officials and evade law enforcement. According to the CBP, the specialists noticed that the security seal appeared to have been tampered with and that the cargo inside did not match what was on the shipping manifest.
Prosecutors said the counterfeit security seals are used to deceive customs officials and were also shipped to the U. According to U. The charges and arrests here demonstrate our commitment to enforce our customs laws and keep the American public safe.
According to an announcement Monday, eight suspects have been arrested, with seven taken into custody on Friday and one taken in on Saturday. Prosecutors allege Zheng controls several logistics companies operating in the Los Angeles area. Liu allegedly managed the finances of one of the contraband-stored warehouses and issued payments to truck drivers who transported smuggled goods. Five more defendants were involved in the bust, all playing different roles in the scheme.
Marck Anthony Gomez, 49, owns and operates Fannum Trucks LLC, a trucking company that is accused of coordinating the movement of contraband-filled shipping containers from the Port of Los Angeles. Jesse James Rosales and Daniel Acosta Hoffman, both 41, coordinated truckers from the ports to warehouses. Another conspirator, year-old Galvin Biao Liufu, directed and managed truck drivers to bring the contraband into the warehouses.
If convicted of all charges, the nine defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each conspiracy count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each count of breaking customs seals and up to 20 years in prison for each smuggling count.
