{"id":158087,"date":"2026-01-31T15:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158087\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:18:08","slug":"project-blitz-owner-says-lapd-nike-devastated-12m-biz-with-illegal-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158087\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Blitz owner says LAPD, Nike &#8216;devastated&#8217; $12M biz with &#8216;illegal&#8217; raid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nike and California cops teamed up to crack a sneaker theft ring \u2014 and in the process allegedly torpedoed a luxe goods reseller loved by celebs like Drake, Morgan Wallen and Beyonce.<\/p>\n<p>Andre Ljustina started collecting sports and fashion items when he was just 5 years old and his parents let him get a Nike Air Michael Jordan basketball jersey.<\/p>\n<p>Decades later, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectblitz.com\/pages\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">launched Project Blitz<\/a> and it took off, reaching $12 million in annual sales \u2014 with customers like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Cq0kPeTrpvb\/?img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">country singer Wallen<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/COLlIB4hBrH\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">rapper Drake stopping by<\/a> for the latest drip.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38343956\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/project-blitz-owner-founder-andre-119977694.jpg\" alt=\"project blitz owner\" class=\"wp-image-38343956\"  \/>Project Blitz owner Andre Ljustina said his company has ground to a halt since the January 2024 raid. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>But the company \u201chas ground to a nearly complete halt\u201d since Jan. 27, 2024, when the LAPD and Nike officials allegedly raided two of his warehouses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLAPD and Nike\u2019s illegal actions immediately devastated Ljustina\u2019s business,\u201d the 46-year-old said in a California Federal Court lawsuit against the police and Nike. <\/p>\n<p>Ljustina\u2019s business sells everything from Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Gucci and Chanel to various Nike products \u2014 including items autographed by celebs.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities believed they were hot on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2024-02-25\/how-lapd-sophisticated-nike-theft-ring\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the trail of scammers<\/a> working at a Nike warehouse in Tennessee who were intentionally misdirecting \u201cunreleased\u201d merchandise in 2023 and 2024 to Roy Lee Harvey Jr., who lived in the Los Angeles area, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Harvey was arrested and charged with 27 counts of receiving stolen property, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.police1.com\/investigations\/lapd-cracks-nike-sneaker-heist-ring-after-uncovering-a-sellers-connection-to-a-warehouse-employee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">police said<\/a>. He pleaded not guilty, and records show the case is ongoing. <\/p>\n<p>In the raids, authorities seized more than 5,000 items from from a variety of companies as well as Nike, and the Nike products were \u201cobviously not unreleased Nike footwear as of mid-2023,\u201d Ljustina said in court papers.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome items were signed by famous athletes, such as former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant, who had died years before the Harvey scheme allegedly commenced,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p>The LAPD quickly took to social media to boast about the raid \u2014 \u201cbefore Nike could even review the Nike merchandise to determine whether it might be stolen,\u201d Ljustina said.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, business partners shied away from Ljustina, \u201cfor fear of being connected to stories of stolen merchandise,\u201d he claimed. <\/p>\n<p>He was also \u201ceffectively blacklisted\u201d by the companies whose products were taken from the warehouse, Ljustina said.<\/p>\n<p>Adding insult to injury, Ljustina still hasn\u2019t gotten most of the seized products back \u2014 and those that have been returned were \u201cin worse condition than when it was seized,\u201d with branded packaging indicating their value trashed.<\/p>\n<p>Nike and the LAPD later blamed each other for refusing to return the items. <\/p>\n<p>Nike declined comment on the litigation. The LAPD nor nor the city attorney responded to messages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNike and the LAPD wrongfully destroyed Andre\u2019s livelihood by taking essentially the entirety of his Nike collection without legal justification,\u201d Ljustina\u2019s lawyer, J. Alejandro Barrientos, said in a statement. \u201cAndre intends to get the justice he deserves,\u201d the attorney added.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nike and California cops teamed up to crack a sneaker theft ring \u2014 and in the process allegedly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1016,47,24961,236,77171,238,3586],"class_list":["post-158087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-lawsuits","tag-los-angeles","tag-nike","tag-police","tag-sneakers","tag-theft","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}