New York ( CNN ) -- Five people and five New York-based companies are accused of importing hazardous and counterfeit toys from China to sell in the United States . According to the 24-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn , seizures of merchandise over eight years included knockoff toys featuring popular children 's characters such as Winnie the Pooh , Dora the Explorer , SpongeBob SquarePants , Betty Boop , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Power Rangers , Spiderman , Tweety , Mickey Mouse and Pokemon . `` It 's safe to say we have seized thousands of toys , '' Lou Martinez , public affairs officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , told CNN . Queens residents Chenglan Hu , 51 , Hua Fei Zhang , 52 , Xiu Lan Zhang , 60 , Guan Jun Zhang , 29 , and Jun Wu Zhang , 28 , were arrested Wednesday . It was not clear late Wednesday whether they had attorneys . The defendants were charged with importing and trafficking hazardous toys in violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act , importing toys bearing copyright-infringing images and counterfeit trademarks , smuggling and money laundering , according to the indictment . The indictment charges that from July 2005 through January 2013 the defendants operated under five different company names , changing the name of the toy company they were operating under after a number of Customs and U.S. Border Patrol searches , seizures and citations . The companies listed in the indictment include Family Product USA Inc. , H.M . Import USA Corp. , ZCY Trading Corp. , Zone Import Corp. and ZY Wholesale Inc. `` They allegedly retooled their operations many times in order to avoid detection and despite repeated citations by the authorities , they continued to peddle counterfeit toys , '' Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breur said in a statement Wednesday . The defendants allegedly sold toys from a storefront and warehouse in Ridgewood Queens , as well as other spots throughout Brooklyn and Queens , according to court documents . Federal officers seized shipping containers entering the United States from China under these toy company names on 33 separate occasions , according to prosecutors . Seventeen of those seizures yielded toys with excessive lead content and phthalate levels , small parts that presented choking and ingestion hazards , and easily accessible battery compartments , officials said . Each seizure confiscated `` hundreds and hundreds '' of toys at a time , according to Martinez . Calls to prosecutors were not immediately returned . CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti contributed to this report .
Federal indictment handed down in New York . Five Queens residents face multiple charges . Prosecutors allege importation of counterfeit , hazardous toys .