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Knock-off trafficker jailed; ring linked to Hezbollah aid

A Plainsboro, N.J., man was sentenced to a year and a day in a federal lockup yesterday for his role in a counterfeit ring that authorities said was related to a plot to funnel money and weapons to Hezbollah.

A Plainsboro, N.J., man was sentenced to a year and a day in a federal lockup yesterday for his role in a counterfeit ring that authorities said was related to a plot to funnel money and weapons to Hezbollah.

Prosecutors said Michael Katz, 67, one of 10 defendants charged in the case, was unaware of the link to Hezbollah and was not charged with providing material support to a terrorist group.

He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy and trafficking in counterfeit goods.

Authorities said Katz twice traveled with several codefendants to Philadelphia in July 2008 to pick up 1,572 pairs of knock-off Nike sneakers and 334 fake Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co. sports jerseys from a government informant and load them into vans, one of which belonged to Katz.

The counterfeit goods, valued at nearly $250,000, were to be sold at flea markets in New Jersey, court papers said.

Katz told U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell that he agreed to use his van to load the fake goods only because he owed money to another participant in the ring.

"I got nothing out of it and made no money," he said. Codefendant Alaa Allia Ahmed Mohamed, 44, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty to the same offenses in April and was also sentenced yesterday, to 18 months behind bars. He also knew nothing about links to Hezbollah.

The more serious charges in the indictment - providing material support to Hezbollah in the form of 1,200 assault rifles - are pending against four other defendants.