SANTA ANA, California – Two Chinese nationals have been charged in a federal criminal complaint alleging they presented United States passports belonging to other people when they tried to enter the U.S. from Mexico last month at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, the Justice Department announced today.
Jin Fu Wei, 44 of Guangxi Province, China, and Xiaodan Lei, 47, of Henan Province, China, are charged with misuse of passport.
They have been in federal custody since their arrest last month and are expected to make their initial appearances today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
“Thanks to the diligent work of customs officers, two Chinese nationals attempting to use U.S. passports belonging to real American citizens were detained and now face federal felony charges,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “This case is not only a criminal matter. It also raises serious national security concerns when foreign citizens are able to enter the United States under false identities. We have a right to know exactly who is crossing our borders and what their intentions are.” According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, on August 26, Wei and Lei – both citizens of China – traveled by commercial airliner from Los Cabos International Airport in Mexico to the U.S. port of entry at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. Upon arrival, the defendants presented to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers U.S. passports of actual U.S. citizens for inspection and admission into the United States.
CBP officers determined that the biometric identifiers associated with the U.S. passports did not match those of Wei and Lei, namely that there was a mismatch between the facial recognition scans of the defendants and the scanned U.S. passports they presented. Neither of the defendants’ names appeared on the flight manifest, an official document that lists all the passengers and crew on board an aircraft.
Law enforcement detained the defendants for further review of their admissibility into the U.S. On his person, Wei had one Chinese credit card and one Chinese bank card, both of which were in his name – not the name of the individual whose U.S. passport he used. Wei also had in his possession an expired Texas driver’s license for the rightful passport holder.
A criminal complaint merely contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
If convicted, each defendant would face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The FBI is investigating this matter with assistance from CBP. Assistant United States Attorney Kent M. Walters of the General Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.