Machinery for processing 160,000 daily fentanyl pills is part of the smuggling merchandise seized in the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex.
Next to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, the interim federal prosecutor of the Department of Justice, Joseph T. McNally announced the arrest of eight individuals: four of Chinese origin and four Latinos who were part of a sophisticated network of smugglers.
The main leader is a fugitive and is speculated that he hides in China.
The specific figures associated with the alleged criminals were: $ 130 million in smuggling seized and $ 200 million in smuggling goods attributed to the defendants, including counterfeit goods and chemical precursors to produce narcotics and machinery to produce fentanyl pills.
At present, the authorities have seized more than $ 1.3 billion in counterfeit products associated with this type of smuggling and other similar schemes of stamps.
Cloned seal
The criminal plan fell apart in 2023 when a Customs Agriculture and Border Protection (CBP) specialist in a routine review detected that the seal of a container had been cloned. This prevented the detection of smuggling merchandise from the containers arriving at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The original seal was found within the container that the worker was inspecting.
“This case attests to its unwavering surveillance, maximum professionalism and great focus on protecting the integrity of legal trade, a key component of our critical national security mission,” said Cheryl Davies, director of Customs field operations and border protection of USA.
Davies informed that, among the smuggling seized were substances, controlled, chemical precursors, weapons, spare parts for weapons, false postcards, currency and falsified consumption products, drug paraphernalia and more than 220 tons of prohibited plant and animal products.
Shipments also contained several capsules filling machines, which can be used in the production of illicit chemicals.
“To import a machine for encapsulating pills, a permission from the US drug administration (DEA) is needed,” Jaime Ruiz, Customs spokesman and border protection of the United States (CBP) told La Opinion. “They are large, automatic and similar machines; When they are smuggled, they have a potential capacity to produce between 160,000 and 190,000 fentanyl pills daily. ”
Order forces also intercepted around 50 falsified stamps and made 204 seizures, including controlled substances and prohibited items.
The band of alleged criminals hired $ 300 or up to $ 10,000 to truck drivers to transport smuggling items.
Thus, the investigations will be extended to the drivers of tractocamiones that were probably involved in the distribution of merchandise. There could be more arrests.
“The message for these people who abuse their position of trust and for truckers in the port, is that if they participate in this behavior (to get involved in smuggling), they could go to a federal prison,” said prosecutor Joseph T .
“There are real consequences for them if they participate in smuggling and for those who organize fraud,” he added. “We will detect this behavior, we will process them and face important sanctions in the federal judicial system.”
McNally said that truckers will not be able to argue that they did not know that the load they transported was not illegal.
“The truckers were not innocent. The accusation alleges that these individuals participated consciously and voluntarily in the plan. ”
In the investigation that began since 2023, in addition to the Federal Prosecutor of the United States of Los Angeles, agents of National Security Investigations (HSI), Customs and Border Protection of the United States (CBP), and the investigation services of investigation of The Coast Guard. The investigation began since 2023
The joint operation of order forces is part of an operation of the anti -drug work group against organized crime (OECTF).
Federal Prison
If they are convicted of all charges, those accused of a federal large jury would face a maximum legal sentence of five years in federal prison for each position of conspiracy, up to 10 years in federal prison for each charge of breaking customs stamps and up to 20 years Prison for each smuggling position.
Seven defendants were arrested on Friday, an eighth was arrested on Saturday night and a defendant is fugitive.
Seven of those arrested have already been prosecuted in the United States District Court. Each of them declared innocent of the charges against him and for March 18 the date of the trial is scheduled.
If they are convicted of all charges, the defendants would face a maximum legal sentence of five years in federal prison for each conspiracy charge, up to 10 years in federal prison for each charge of breaking customs seals and up to 20 years in prison for each smuggling .
Change of stamps
According to the accusation, Weijun Zheng, Hexi Wang, Jin “Mark” Liu and others maintained and operated stores to store, hide and sell large amounts of smuggling goods that were illegally imported to the United States from China.
When smuggling containers were selected by the United States Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) for inspection, the defendants hired commercial truck drivers to transport containers from the port of Los Angeles to private warehouses controlled by conspirators , including stores in the city of Industry that were controlled or managed by Zheng, Wang and others.
In these places, the accomplices broke the safety stamps of the shipping containers and took the smuggling from the interior. Then, they placed false security stamps on the containers to hide that they had removed the load of them.
Subsequently, Zheng, Wang and others ordered their accomplices to transport the containers (after emptying them from much of their original load and securing them with false seals) to places authorized by the CBP so that the rest of the load was presented to Customs officials for processing. inspection.
It is presumed that Zheng, Wang, Liu and others paid fees to their alleged accomplices including Marck Anthony Gómez and Andy Estuardo Castillo Pérez, who obtained well -payments above the normal transport fees of smuggling containers.
“This criminal scheme has exposed a vulnerability (in the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports) that has the potential for much more serious implications, including those related to national security and smuggling of chemical precursors to produce narcotics,” said Eddie Wong , special agent in charge of National Security Research (HSI) in Los Angeles. “Therefore, the Department of National Security (DHS) takes these matters seriously, because our main mission is to guarantee the security and protection of the homeland.”
Accused
• Weijun Zheng, 57 years old, also known as “Sonic”, by Diamond Bar, is the only fugitive in the case. It controls several logistics companies that operate in the Los Angeles area.
• Hexi Wang, 32 years, from El Monte, which manages K & P International Logistics LLC, a company based in the City of Industry that hires commercial truck drivers to transport containers from the port of Los Angeles.
• Jin “Mark” Liu, 42 years, from Irvine, owner of K & P International Logistics LLC and who administered the finances of one of the warehouses where the smuggling was downloaded and issued payments to the truck drivers who transported smuggling goods.
• Dong “Liam” Lin, 31 years, of Hacienda Heights, who – together with Weijun Zheng – controlled and operated one of the smuggling stores.
• Marck Anthony Gómez, 49 years, by West Covina, owner and operator of Fannum Trucks LLC, a company based in West Covina that coordinated the movement of shipping containers from the port of Los Angeles, including large smuggling shipments introduced to the United States from China .
• Andy Estuardo Castillo Pérez32 years, by Apple Valley, driver of M4 Transportation Inc., a company based in Carson that transports containers from the port of Los Angeles.
• Jesse James Rosales41 years, by Apple Valley, who coordinated the truckers from the ports to the stores.
• Daniel Acosta Hoffman41 years, from Hacienda Heights, worked with Jesse James Rosales to carry load containers from the port of Los Angeles to the stores.
• Galvin Biao Liufu33 years old, from Ontario, directed and managed the truckers to take the smuggling to the stores.
(tagstotranslate) smuggling