The US government announced criminal charges Wednesday against executives from six German and Chinese companies accused of smuggling antibiotic-tainted Chinese honey in order to avoid import duties.  Officials said it is the biggest food smuggling case in US history and is part of a years-long crackdown on illegal imports of substandard, tainted and counterfeit products. The accused allegedly conspired to illegally import more than 40 million dollars of Chinese-origin honey in order to avoid antidumping duties totaling nearly 80 million dollars. Ten German nationals were charged: former Alfred L. Wolff chief executive Alexander Wolff, 37; Jurgen Becker; Tom Weickert; Marcel Belten; Yi Liu, 45, of Beijing; Sven Gehricke, 44; Thomas Marten, 32; Thomas Gerkmann, 37; Stephanie Giesselbach, 32, of Chicago; and Magnus von Buddenbrock, 35, of Chicago. One Chinese national was also charged: Gong Jie Chen, 44, who acted as sales manager for defendant QHD Sanhai Honey, a honey producer and exporter in Hebei Province, China. Alfred L. Wolff, which was acquired by Norevo GmbH in February, and four of its subsidiaries also face criminal charges, as does QHD.