http://www.seattlepi.com/local/409422_HONEY19.html

A Chinese citizen accused of illegally importing honey to the United States
-- including one shipment tainted with antibiotics -- pleaded guilty
Wednesday in U.S. District Court at Seattle.

Boa Zhong Zhang was accused of rerouting shipments of Chinese honey through
the Philippines to avoid importation taxes, a U.S. Department of Justice
spokeswoman said in a statement. In doing so, Zhang avoided paying about
$3.3 million in tariffs.

Federal prosecutors assert that Zhang, a 20-year employee of a Chinese bee
products company, conspired with Bellevue honey importer Chung Po Liu to
import 21 honey shipments. The honey was first shipped from China to the
Philippines or Thailand, where it was re-labeled and sent on to the United
States.

In doing so, the Justice Department spokeswoman said, Zhang and Liu avoided
183-percent to 221-percent tariffs placed on honey imports from China. One
shipment, which arrived in January 2008, is believed to have been
contaminated with ciproflaxin -- an antibiotic sometimes sold under the
trade name Cipro.

"Submission of false customs documentation in order to avoid paying tariffs
defrauds not only the U.S. government, but the public who is unaware of the
scheme and unwittingly purchases the products," Special Agent-in-Charge
Leigh Winchell said in a statement. Winchell heads the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement office of investigations in Seattle.

Tainted honey was the subject of a 2008 investigative series by former
Seattle Post-Intelligencer senior correspondent Andrew Schneider. The
six-part series can be found here <http://www.seattlepi.com/specials/honey/>
.

Arrested May 6, Zhang pleaded to importation charges and to introducing
adulterated food into interstate commerce. He faces up to five years in
prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced by U.S. District Judge James L.
Robart on Nov. 30.

Zhang and Liu were indicted by the grand jury on June 4. Liu is scheduled to
go on trial April 5 on related charges.

In a separate, related case, Yong Xiang Yan, the president of the Chinese
honey manufacturing company for which Zhang was employed, is facing similar
federal charges in a Chicago, Ill. In that case, a the Justice Department
spokeswoman claimed, some of the illegally imported honey has been found to
be contaminated with three different antibiotics.

-- 
Juanse Barros J.
APIZUR S.A.
Carrera 695
Gorbea - CHILE
+56-45-271693
08-3613310
http://apiaraucania.blogspot.com/
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