Nine people are facing federal charges for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to “smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of counterfeit and other illegal goods from China into the United States via the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,” the United States Justice Department said.

The accused include executives of logistic companies, warehouse owners and truck drivers who worked together to import counterfeit goods and evade inspections in 2023 and 2024, the DOJ said in a news release on Monday.

“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,” officials explained.

“Co-conspirators broke the security seals on the shipping containers and removed the contraband from inside,” the release said. “Then, they affixed counterfeit security seals onto the containers to conceal that cargo had been removed from them.” Read more below