A 43-year-old man named Daniel Hoffman from Hacienda Heights in the San Gabriel Valley was sentenced to five years and three months in prison on March 27 for participating in the smuggling of counterfeit goods worth up to $200 million into the United States.
According to reports from the city news agency, Hoffman was convicted last October of conspiracy to smuggle, two counts of illegal removal of customs seals, and two counts of smuggling related to two containers. In addition to the imprisonment, he was also ordered to pay a restitution of $414,348.
Hoffman was one of nine defendants indicted in December 2024 in the Los Angeles federal court. Prosecutors accused them of working for a criminal syndicate that coordinated the transportation of counterfeit shoes, perfumes, designer handbags, and watches from China to the United States.
The indictment stated that containers that were supposed to undergo a secondary inspection by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were diverted to warehouses or other locations controlled by the defendants. The defendants would break the security seals, remove the contraband, replace them with counterfeit seals, and then return the containers for inspection.
Seven out of the nine defendants have already pleaded guilty to federal charges. One of them, Marck Gomez, was sentenced to two years in prison in September last year and ordered to pay $4.1 million in restitution, while the rest are still awaiting sentencing.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that the alleged ringleader of the syndicate, a 57-year-old man named Weijun Zheng from Diamond Bar, is currently fugitive.
Among the defendants are logistics managers, warehouse owners, and truck drivers.
Evidence showed that Hoffman was involved in transporting containers filled with counterfeit goods from the Los Angeles-Long Beach port to warehouses controlled by the criminal syndicate.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office disclosed that law enforcement agencies had seized goods valued at over $130 million, including counterfeit shoes and clothing, designer handbags, watches, and perfumes worth $20 million from one warehouse.
The indictment revealed that the case was uncovered by a team of CBP agriculture specialists during a routine container inspection at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport in 2023. The smuggling activities took place between August 2023 and June 2024, involving charges of conspiracy, smuggling, and tampering with customs seals.