Thirty-three people have been charged for their alleged roles in a global smuggling operation in which $500 million worth of counterfeit designer items were shipped from China to the United States and sold on the black market, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Fake Louis Vuitton and Tory Burch purses, Michael Kors wallets, Hermes belts, and Chanel perfume were shipped overseas by Chinese manufacturers disguised as legitimate imports through ports on the east and west coasts.
ICE, an agency largely known for deporting people illegally in the country, said its Homeland Security Investigation team was responsible for the big bust.
“The defendants allegedly smuggled millions of dollars of counterfeit luxury goods into our country, depriving companies of their valuable and hard-earned intellectual property,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement.
Twenty-two people were charged federally, and 11 others were charged by the district attorney’s office in Queens, N.Y. “Most were citizens and lawful residents,” ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Among the charges filed against the accused are conspiracy to trafficking and trafficking in counterfeit goods, conspiracy to smuggle and smuggling, money laundering conspiracy, immigration fraud and unlawful procurement of naturalization, and unlawful procurement of naturalization.
Federal investigators also seized nine properties in New York city’s Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, that it said belonged to the accused.
ICE said the operation was a government-wide effort that involved the New York Police Department Border Security Enforcement Task Force, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, New York State Police, Justice Department Task Force on Intellectual Property, and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
