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Man Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Counterfeit Tobacco Products into United States

Written by FEDagent on . Posted in The Takedown

A Chinese national has pleaded guilty to importing counterfeit tobacco products into the United States from China, according to a recent release from the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.

Lin Xiao Wei admitted to arranging for the shipment of a 22-foot cargo container holding counterfeit cigarettes. Wei’s shipping documentation for the cargo container alleged that the container held 696 cartons of leather products, FDA said.

In June 2012, Wei met with a confidential informant and an undercover FDA-OCI Task Force agent at a Miami hotel, where Wei discussed the shipment of the tobacco products as well as prior shipments of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.

Upon arrival of the cargo container in Miami, FDA-OCI and Homeland Security Investigations agents seized the container.

Wei is scheduled to be sentenced on April 10, 2013. Causing the sale of counterfeit tobacco products carries a maximum sentence of three years in federal prison, a fine of $10,000 and three years of supervised release.

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