HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A person who owns a Homestead auto parts retailer is going through a mountain of criminal fees after police mentioned an intercepted cargo led them to find a trove of counterfeit airbags at his trade, some of that have been stuffed with junk.
Michael Keith Reid, 61, of southwest Miami-Dade, was once arrested Wednesday. He’s going through 306 criminal fees of uploading fake or junk-filled airbags and one criminal depend of counterfeiting greater than $20,000 in items.
Reid, police mentioned, owns Mike’s Auto Miami at 777 W. Mowry Drive. He lives within the Kendall space.
According to Miami-Dade police, Reid were given on government’ radar after Homeland Security Investigations brokers in Raleigh, North Carolina carried out a border seek of a FedEx cargo of 20 Honda airbags from the United Kingdom, sure for Mike’s Auto.
Agents suspected the airbags had been counterfeit and despatched them to South Florida for additional inspection, police mentioned.
An arrest record states that HSI brokers and Miami-Dade police inspected and photographed the airbags on March 15.
Police mentioned a Honda consultant focusing on counterfeit parts showed in the course of the footage that the airbags had been certainly phony, mentioning that they had been packaged and marked improperly.
A Miami-Dade detective known as up Mike’s Auto and asked a quote for 2015 Honda Accord airbags and was once advised there have been “plenty in stock” and may well be purchased for $350 a work, police mentioned.
According to the arrest record, original airbags would promote for greater than $900 a work.
“The existence of these airbags, and their possible installation into the vehicles of unsuspecting purchasers creates a serious health and safety risk to the public,” police wrote. “The airbags in question are not manufactured to the same quality or standards as those manufactured by the Honda Motor Corporation and as such their timely operation in a time of dire need cannot be readily assured.”
Police mentioned information from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration “has shown that these counterfeit airbags consistently malfunction, ranging from simple nondeployment during a crash to the expulsion of metal shrapnel during deployment.”
On Wednesday, Miami-Dade and Homestead police, in conjunction with federal brokers and U.S. Department of Transportation officers, carried out a seek of Mike’s Auto after getting a warrant, the record states.
Police mentioned they discovered 282 counterfeit airbags, maximum categorised as being from Honda and Acura, but additionally fake airbags categorised with the Chevrolet, Toyota, Nissan, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz manufacturers.
“In addition to the counterfeit airbags, four hoax Chevrolet airbags, which were junk-filled, nonfunctional, and made to give the appearance of an operational airbag were also located,” police wrote.
Police mentioned Reid, who was once not able to supply an airbag log as required by means of Florida regulation, advised investigators he paid $200 according to airbag regardless of the make or type of the automobile and admitted that $700 is the traditional, low-end retail worth for an airbag.
The record states he additionally said that authentic airbag containers lift explosive caution labels and the containers he had don’t and “were easily crushed.”
Police mentioned the seized airbags had been price $281,766.
Reid remained held within the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Thursday afternoon, along with his bond indexed as “to be set” in on-line information.
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