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Friday, May 04, 2012

Agents Seize $47 Million In Counterfeit Goods From Flea Market

5 charged with selling the counterfeit items

BALTIMORE
- More than $47 million in counterfeit merchandise seized at the Patapsco Flea Market is the Homeland Security Investigations' largest such seizure ever at a flea market, federal authorities said.

Agents raided the market in southwest Baltimore on April 22 as part of a 2½ year investigation. Authorities seized nearly 220,000 counterfeit items including clothing, shoes, jewelry, handbags, DVDs, CDs, perfume, makeup and other personal care items. Had those items been legitimate, authorities said, the total manufacturer's suggested retail price would be about $47.3 million.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Makes for a good headline but it is ridiculous Government propaganda claiming 47 million $$ in value.

Anonymous said...

so it was more like $150.00. the retail prices for the legitimate products are far higher than the items are worth.

Anonymous said...

How do you counterfeit shoes. They should call it what it is and that is copyright infringement. It's not that they weren't really shoes or shirts, it's that they didn't have the copyright holders permission or license to use their brands.

lmclain said...

Homeland Security is ON IT!!! Flea markets are on their terror watchlist?!! LOL!! And they couldn't claim they confiscated a buch of trash worth about $3000, because people would start asking 1) what the hell are agents who are making $55-125,000 a year doing busting flea markets and 2)how many agents were involved in this flea market bust and why were they investigating some REAL terrorists. Its also similiar to the drug busts cops do. They bust someone with a pound of pot (cost? $1200) and claim they took $15,000 woth of pot "off the streets". Can't tell the truth because too many people would start asking similar questions --- is THIS all they have to do and how much did that "protect and serve" operation cost the taxpayer (you know, the "return on investment" taxpayers should be getting...). LOL! Two and a half YEARS to bust a flea market??? Homeland Security, huh? More like Homeland Stupidity.

Anonymous said...

what does this have to do with homeland security? beats me. thanks sjd

Anonymous said...

Why is Homeland Security worrying about copyright infringements anyway?

Anonymous said...

Made in China! It's a wonder the flea market in Laural Delaware doesn't get popped

Anonymous said...

Because it's illegal 2:18 and it takes jobs away from Americans. If they can smuggle conterfeit clothes they probably have loads of drugs too. Most of that crap comes from our buddies financing are huge debt, China.

lmclain said...

5:09....thats not the reason and it wouldn't justify HOMELAND SECURITY being the police agency tasked to investigate. THAT is NOT their mission. I'm thinking that one of obamas rich bribery cohorts complained to him that he was losing sales because of counterfeit goods. obama says "another couple of million for my campaign and I'll sic Homeland Security on 'em for ya". Cha-ching!!!

Anonymous said...

10:50-I'm with you on that.Can anyone reading this post comprehend how much $47 million is?I just know that I can't,but this sort of hyper inflation goes on all of the time.The .3 on the end is more like it,and even that is way over the actual amount.Sounds to me like they are being evaluated & facing cuts.