Brothers plead guilty to selling counterfeit air bags
Two brothers from Mexico pleaded guilty in federal court in Albuquerque on Wednesday to charges of trafficking in counterfeit air bags. Their guilty pleas mean they will be deported. Brothers Dina Gonzalez-Marquez, 24, and Emilio Gonzalez-Marquez, 22, agreed to a plea deal that recommended five years’ unsupervised probation. But because they are illegally in the United States, they must leave the country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The brothers were indicted on April 26, 2017, and charged with conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods and with two counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods.
From January 2015 to March 2017, the twosome operated “a business that sold counterfeit air bag modules and air bag covers out of their Albuquerque residence,” according to the U.S. attorney’s news release.
In their guilty pleas, the siblings admitted they purchased counterfeit air bags and air bag covers from overseas and listed them for sale on internet sites. “They acknowledged that they continued to sell counterfeit airbags and airbag covers even after being contacted by one of the internet sites and a vehicle manufacturer, and were instructed to cease and desist advertising and selling the counterfeit airbags and airbag covers,” the news release said. Between 1987 and 2015, frontal air bags
saved almost 45,000 lives, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to the agency, counterfeit air bags have been shown to malfunction, including “the expulsion of metal shrapnel during deployment.”
In a similar counterfeit air bag case in Missouri in 2017, a Missouri man pleaded guilty to importing counterfeit air bags and air bag components from China and selling $120,000 worth of them through his eBay stores, according a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which investigated the case. He was subject to up to 20 years in federal prison without parole at sentencing.
As part of their plea agreement, the brothers from Mexico forfeited approximately 143 air bags and air bag covers, four storage devices, four laptops and $2,510 in cash. Their sentencing hearings have yet to be scheduled.