3 Plead Guilty To Smuggling Counterfeit Goods

 BALTIMORE (AP) -- Three people have pleaded guilty to plotting to smuggle counterfeit Coach handbags made in Malaysia and China into the Port of Baltimore.

Kin Yip Ng, 43, of Whitestone, N.Y., Lidan Zhang, 39, of China and Josephine Zhou, 32, of Brooklyn, N.Y., entered pleas this week. They will be sentenced in February and March. 

According to their plea agreements, from 2008 to this year, the trio paid an undercover business in Maryland to clear counterfeit clothing and accessories through U.S. Customs at the Port of Baltimore. 

Twice last year, the three received a container loaded with about 25,000 counterfeit Coach hand bags. Prosecutors say the loss attributed to the fake merchandise was between $400,000 and $1 million. 

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