Customs agents and law enforcement continue to crack down on the distribution and sale of counterfeit fashion.
In Shreveport, La., Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted 10 designer outfits and 35 purses valued at $69,240 bound for a private residence in Arkansas. On Monday in Louisville, Ky., agents took down an attempted shipment of 2,500 rings bearing the logos of Versace, Gucci, Bvlgari and Rolex, 319 phone cases and 210 watch bands posing as Louis Vuitton, and 60 fake Gucci watch bands.
CBP estimated the value of the items—were they real—at $1.76 million. Their destinations were Suwanne, Ga., and Orlando, Fla.
“Counterfeit goods are poor quality products that cost U.S. businesses billions of dollars a year while robbing our country of jobs and tax revenues,” LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, director of field operations of the Chicago office for CBP, which intercepted $8 million worth of counterfeits on the average day last year. “CBP officers throughout the nation remain committed to stopping counterfeit smuggling, taking profits from organized crime, and helping protect our communities from potentially hazardous knockoffs.”
Watch on FN
Last month, police in Shrewsbury, Mass., responding to reports of shots fired discovered $11.3 million worth of counterfeit goods in a storage unit. The stockpile uncovered on June 17 included counterfeit shoes, clothing, handbags, sunglasses, hats, backpacks, cologne, phone cases, earbuds and umbrellas ripping off Gucci, Prada, Luis Vuitton, Chanel, Nike, The North Face and Rolex.
According to a Shrewsbury PD press release, responding officers observed “multiple vehicles and encountered an individual in front of a storage unit.” Officers discovered the walls on either side of the unit had been removed to create space equalling three units to store the counterfeit merchandise.
The Shrewsbury PD asked Powers and Associates to assess the haul. The consulting firm estimated the MSRP value of the 16,664 items at $11.3 million.
In 2022, CBP seized nearly 25 million shipments that violated intellectual property, valued at close to $3 billion if they were authentic.
“Purchasing counterfeit items whether at a flea market, black market or online is illegal,” said Shreveport CBP port director James Norris. “It hurts the trademark holders and their employees who rely on the income of legitimate sales. Counterfeiters fund transnational criminal enterprises and when consumers purchase goods from illegitimate sources, they become complicit in financing these criminal enterprises.”
This story was reported by Sourcing Journal and originally appeared on Sourcingjournal.com.
