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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Louisville had themselves quite a night recently when they seized over 3,000 counterfeit items worth over $3.1 million.
These weren’t just any run of the mill fakes either.
The three shipment containers held counterfeit Rolex watches as well as hundreds of Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Versace, Tous, Tory Burch, and Disney knockoffs.
On May 8, Louisville CBP officers seized three shipments containing luxury handbags, jewelry and watches after being deemed inauthentic and bearing counterfeit marks.
More details on this $3.1M seizure: https://t.co/ZUWvKmAyWX pic.twitter.com/RpLkczFzxn
— CBP (@CBP) May 13, 2023
The first container that was inspected and seized contained 1,438 fake Van Cleef & Arpels necklaces. Van Cleef & Arpels, for the unfamiliar, is a French luxury jewelry company.
Had they been real, they would have been worth a total of $2.18 million.
The second container held 10 fake Rolex watches that would have been worth a total of $102,500.
CDP officers hit another motherlode with the third shipment they confiscated.
Inside that one they found found 14 fake Louis Vuitton handbags, and over 1,400 pairs of earrings with Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Versace, Tous, Tory Burch, and Disney logos. The officers also found over 200 necklaces with the logos of Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. Total value of the entire container? $812,510.
“These types of seizures happen every night. Our officers are very well trained and vigilant in stopping these illegal shipments from reaching their destinations,” said LaFonda Sutton-Burke, Director, Field Operations-Chicago Field Office. “Whether it is Intellectual Property Right violations, narcotics, unapproved items or counterfeit products our officers will continue to protect our local communities and our ports of entry.”
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, consumers in America spend more than $100 billion every year on counterfeit items.
One of the more high-profile fake items to appear in CBP seizures are counterfeit sports championship rings.
In 2021, 294 counterfeit championship rings were seized in Cincinnati worth $441,000 on the black market.
Later, in 2022, Customs and Border Patrol officers, again in Cincinnati, seized 1,400 fake championship rings worth an estimated $1 million.
Two months later, 230 more counterfeit championship rings worth over $345,000 were confiscated in Louisville.