Two Hacienda Heights men are facing charges in a large-scale smuggling operation that brought contraband from China through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, per a recent announcement from the Justice Department. The accused, identified as Zhongliang Wang, 39, and Chenyu Zhao, 31 have been arrested and charged with conspiracy and illegally moving goods past customs control. Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally emphasized the importance of curbing illegal smuggling, saying “Protecting our nation’s borders from illegal smuggling is a top priority,” in a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office – Central District of California.
Both defendants allegedly took part in a deceptive operation that saw cargo containers, initially flagged for a secondary inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), being diverted to off-site locations under the conspirators’ control here, they unloaded the illegal items, swapped them with filler material and returned the containers, with counterfeit security seals to mimic legitimacy, for inspection, attempting to hoodwink customs and slip by law enforcement efforts. More than $1.3 billion in contraband has been seized in association with this and similar schemes, revealing a dodgy underworld flourishing beneath the guise of legitimate trade. Law enforcement has seized significant quantities of counterfeit goods, including luxury handbags and footwear and approximately 19.5 kilograms of enobosarm, an illicit steroid when they raided a warehouse connected to the charged individuals.
The logistics of the scheme entailed hiring commercial truck drivers to transport the selected containers to conspirator-controlled warehouses, one such being in the City of Industry managed by Zhao and associates, according to court documents. Once delivered, the cargo’s original security seals were broken, the illegal contents removed, and counterfeit seals applied, the containers were then set on their journey back to CBP-designated inspection areas. It has been alleged that Wang paid substantial fees, upwards of $15,000 for a single container diversion in December of 2024, to facilitate this elaborate bypass of customs inspections…