COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Galloway auto dealership owner pleaded guilty in federal court to trafficking counterfeit air bags he imported from China and installed in vehicles sold at his lot, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
John Bojorquez, 35, of Columbus, admitted to intentionally trafficking in at least 44 counterfeit air bags between August 2024 and May 2025, prosecutors said. Bojorquez owned JB Ohio Auto Sale, LLC, in Galloway.
The scheme surfaced in August 2024, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Chicago O’Hare International Airport intercepted a shipment of 20 counterfeit Honda air bags sent from China, according to court documents. The package was falsely labeled as “desktop night lights” and addressed to Bojorquez at his dealership, the documents state.
The same shipper sent four more packages of counterfeit Honda air bags that same month, each mislabeled as desktop or blue desktop nightlights, according to the release.
When investigators executed a search warrant at JB Ohio Auto Sale in May 2025, they recovered additional counterfeit air bags, some of which had been piled inside a clothes hamper and covered with a towel, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Trafficking in counterfeit goods is a federal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set, and the sentence will be determined by U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. based on advisory guidelines and other statutory factors, according to the release.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has previously issued consumer safety advisories warning that counterfeit air bags can malfunction, including failing to deploy or expelling metal shrapnel when they do deploy.
The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II; Jared Murphey, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Detroit; and officials with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter K. Glenn-Applegate is prosecuting the case.
Anyone who purchased a vehicle from JB Ohio Auto Sale and suspects it may contain a counterfeit air bag is asked to call the U.S. Attorney’s Office at 888-529-2820.
Suspects are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
