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Authorities claim the group is responsible for trucking counterfeit and illegal goods in from China.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California issued a 15-count indictment involving nine people based in the state. Authorities allege that several trucking company owners, operators, and drivers coordinated a smuggling operation that landed at least $200 million in counterfeit and illegal goods stateside from China.
The indictment says that various trucking and logistics company staff and warehouse managers worked together. They allegedly trucked, hid, and sold the cargo after the shipments landed at the Port of Los Angeles. This all happened between August 2023 and June 2024.
In one warehouse alone, the Feds seized more than $20 million in counterfeit handbags, clothing, shoes, watches, and more. All told, Federal Law Enforcement collected more than $130 million in smuggled cargo connected to this case alone.
Charges include conspiracy, smuggling, and breaking security seals, according to the State Attorney Office’s press release. Allegedly, if U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) flagged a targeted shipping container for inspection, trucking company executives paid “higher than average” fees to have a semi-truck driver move the container to a warehouse. There, conspirators would break the official security seal, empty the container, load it back up with “filler” cargo, and install a counterfeit security seal.
K&P International Logistics LLC, Fannum Trucks LLC, and M4 Transportation Inc. are mentioned in the indictment.
Federal agents said that as of January 27, one person remained at large. If convicted, the suspects face overlapping charges that could result in decades-long prison sentences.