Police in New York have arrested 22 people on suspicion of being involved in a plot to smuggle counterfeit goods worth $450 million into the US from China.
The suspects stand accused of smuggling Chinese-manufactured fake luxury items into the country, such as Louis Vuitton and Tory Burch handbags, Michael Kors wallets, Hermes belts and Chanel perfume, among other products.
Prosecutors argue the Chinese gang members smuggled the items in large shipping containers disguised as legitimate products and brought them into the country via seaports in New York and New Jersey.
In a bid to avoid the attention of law enforcement authorities, the gang members are said to have falsified customs documents and used “burner” cell phone numbers and email accounts to conceal their true identities and cover their tracks.
Officials said the seizure was one of the largest in the history of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, putting the bust in perspective by noting the agency seized counterfeit goods estimated to be worth around $1.2 billion throughout the whole of 2017.
Those arrested were charged with a number of offences, including conspiracy to traffic counterfeit goods, conspiracy to smuggle counterfeit goods, money laundering, immigration fraud and unlawful procurement of naturalisation.
The suspects are said to have planned to sell the bogus items across the US, where they would have been worth nearly half a billion dollars had they been genuine.
“The defendants allegedly smuggled millions of dollars of counterfeit luxury goods into our country, depriving companies of their valuable and hard-earned intellectual property,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“The illegal smuggling of counterfeit goods poses a real threat to honest businesses, and I commend our federal prosecutors and partners at HSI and the NYPD for their outstanding work on this important investigation.
“The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable those who seek to exploit our borders by smuggling counterfeit goods for sale on the black market.”
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has made the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods a priority issue this year, and is targeting the importation of fake products from locations such as Hong Kong and China that can damage the American economy and threaten the health and safety of US consumers.
Speaking back in March, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said: “The theft of intellectual property and trade in counterfeit and pirated goods causes harm to an innovation-based economy by threatening the competitiveness of businesses and the livelihoods of workers.”
