Dec 5, 2007 3:22 pm US/Eastern
Prosecutors Shut Down Massive Port Smuggling Ring
NEW YORK (AP) ―
Ten people have been arrested on charges of bribing port workers to smuggle more than $200 million in counterfeit sneakers, handbags and designer jeans from China into the U.S., prosecutors said Wednesday.
"It is always deeply troubling when a criminal enterprise seeks to circumvent our port security, whatever the form of contraband and wherever the point of entry," U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia told a news conference.
Garcia said authorities including an undercover informant had watched the counterfeit ring at the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in Elizabeth, N.J., for more than a year, documenting more than 100 shipping containers with Chinese-made counterfeit goodsarriving at the port.
Those arrested on conspiracy and smuggling charges include a federally licensed customs broker, several shipping employees, and the owners of a Brooklyn trucking company. If convicted, they could face a maximum of 35 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.
Prosecutors allege the suspects smuggled millions of dollars in counterfeit goods through the port by bribing workers and disguising the cargo with fraudulent documentation. In one case, a box containing sneakers was labeled noodles.
To make sure the containers made it into the United States, the smugglers paid at least $500,000 in cash bribes to an undercover federal agent who they believed was a corrupt union official for workers at the port, Garcia said.
Once the containers were cleared, they were moved to warehouses across the metropolitan New York area and eventually to stores in Queens and Brooklyn, he said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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