Recently there was a situation in California involving an ex-Orange County Sheriff's deputy, some illegally imported Japanese cars, and what seems to be a plot from one of the rejected Fast & Furious scripts. One Daryl Alison, a 45-year old former law enforcement officer and entrepreneur of sorts, was charged with removing the markings from an imported Japanese domestic market (JDM) vehicle.
According to court documents, the cars, which included several Nissan Skylines and other Japanese right-hand drive cars as well as one that appeared in the fourth installment of "Fast and Furious" franchise, were disassembled, shipped to the States, and then reassembled at a place called Kaizo Industries out on Costa Mesa. If that's not the backdrop for the next F&F movie, I don't know what is.
Once assembled, the cars allegedly gained fake VINs and were sent on their merry way. When US Customs raided the Costa Mesa company that employed Alison this past summer they found a dozen cars values at over $450,000.
Now, Alison is potentially facing a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Let this be a lesson to everyone: A) crime doesn't pay, and B) be smarter about the fake VINs you're using when dealing with cars obviously not from around here.
By Phil Alex
*The 2002 GT-R racer shown in the picture is from Nissan's archive
Source: OC Register and L.A. Times
