1.7 Million Fake N95 Masks Seized In Queens, 1 Arrested: DA

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — One person has been arrested after authorities seized more than 1.7 million counterfeit N95 face masks from a Long Island City warehouse, in what is believed to be the largest seizure of phony protective gear since the coronavirus pandemic started.

Zhi Zeng, 33, faces a felony charge of trademark counterfeiting after a tip led law enforcement officers to a "dirty, dusty" warehouse on 51st Avenue stacked with boxes of the fake respirators, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a news conference Thursday.

“We believe this to be one of the largest single seizures of counterfeit masks since the pandemic began last year," Katz told reporters.

Inside the two-story warehouse, authorities also found hundreds of thousands of brand-name hand sanitizer bottles, packs of disinfecting wipes, children's masks, construction masks and protective gowns; investigators are still working on verifying those items' authenticity.

Zeng, a resident of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, was inside the warehouse when the raid occurred. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

His lawyer, Eric Renfroe, did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

“We are living in a horrible pandemic with more than 450,000 Americans dead from COVID-19," Katz said in a statement. "This defendant allegedly sold false hope and security and was set to sell more of these counterfeit masks to whomever would pay his price."

The Queens District Attorney's Office started investigating the counterfeiting operation after getting a tip about supposed 3M N95 masks being sold from the warehouse for $2.95 to $3.25 a piece — far more than 3M's suggested retail price of $1.27.

The masks almost exactly mimicked the packaging and branding of N95 respirators made by 3M, a leading distributor, but the company identified them as fakes thanks to their phony lot numbers.

“3M is aggressively fighting counterfeiting of our critical products needed by health care and frontline workers during the pandemic," the company said in a statement.

The N95 mask — considered the gold standard in protecting people against COVID-19 — has been in high demand during the pandemic, inspiring massive knockoff operations to emerge as supplies ran low.

It is unclear what level of protection the counterfeit masks seized in Long Island City provide, if any, Katz told reporters.

Experts are now analyzing them to determine how protective the masks were — a consequential matter for health care and other front-line workers who may have relied on the phonies to stay safe in the pandemic.

One health care system in the south, which authorities declined to name, spent $700,000 to buy 200,000 of the counterfeit masks.

Authorities declined to answer a question about whether any New York City facilities were impacted and said they are still working on identifying and notifying medical facilities that bought the counterfeits.

Katz stressed that her office's investigation into the fakes, which she referred to as a "sophisticated operation," is continuing.