Value of goods totals $15M-$20M in raid at Weathersfield warehouse

By Ed Runyan

The warehouse raid appears to be the largest of its kind in Ohio history.

NILES — Two men arrested near a McKinley Heights warehouse Friday are among about 15 people ensnared in a months-long investigation of a counterfeiting ring operating at the Rogers Flea Market, and at a flea market in southwest Ohio.

Monroe, Ohio, Police Detective Ken Parson said he came to the Mahoning Valley on Thursday to raid a warehouse at 1804 N. State Street in Weathersfield Township.

He was assisted by Weathersfield and Niles police and a private investigator representing the companies whose names were being used on the merchandise, Parson said.

He added the amount of goods found in the warehouse totals $15 million to $20 million, making it most likely the largest find of counterfeit merchandise in state history.

The goods were purses, wallets, jewelry, hats, gloves, shoes and scarves labeled as Coach, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel, Tiffany & Co., Ed Hardy, John Deere, National Football League, Major League Baseball, The Ohio State University, Harley Davidson, 3M, Playboy and several others.

Parson learned of the warehouse after arresting about a dozen vendors in May at the Trader’s World Flea Market in Monroe who were selling counterfeit purses and other items. He expects to present felony charges to a grand jury in Warren County later this week on the arrests made in May.

But on Friday, he and other officers observed a box truck leaving the Weathersfield warehouse and arriving in Rogers, where undercover officers purchased counterfeit items from two men and a woman there.

The three — Hu Man Wong, 33, Lui Chang, 25, and Wu Tao, 24 — were detained but released. They are all from Brooklyn but are originally from China, Parson said.

Officers then returned to Weathersfield to serve a search warrant on the warehouse, and three people in a minivan were arrested after they pulled into the warehouse parking lot while officers were there.

Officers followed the van and stopped it in the nearby McDonald’s parking lot. Inside, officers found three men and boxes of counterfeit purses. One of the three was Tao.

Another was the driver of the van, John Lastic, 59, of Greensburg, Pa., who was also charged with trademark counterfeiting and released on $1,500 bond.

Niles Municipal Court Judge Thomas W. Townley set Tao’s bond Monday at $100,000, and he remained in Trumbull County Jail on Tuesday afternoon. He and Lastic are due back in Niles Municipal Court on Sept. 5. A third man in the van, who was from Youngstown, was not charged.

Parson said he plans to present the charges against Wong, Chang and Tao to a grand jury in Warren County sometime next month.

Parson said lease records suggest that the Weathersfield warehouse has probably been used for the illegal enterprise since at least 2006.

Parson said it appears the illegal sales were being carried out by individuals leaving New York to sell the items in Rogers on Friday and then traveling to Monroe to sell them over the weekend.

Parson said the goods were made in China, brought into the United States through New York and then used to supply outlets in Ohio and possibly the entire Midwest.

runyan@vindy.com