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United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers recently seized numerous counterfeit luxury items, including multiple high-priced watches, at the Rochester Port of Entry in New York.
According to a CBP press release, while inspecting several shipments containing multiple pieces of “designer” clothing, shoes, handbags, and watches, officers discovered that all of them were actually fake.
This despite the fact that the luxury items bore the trademarks of the companies that supposedly created them.
Among the inauthentic items that were seized was “one high-end watch” discovered to have a value of approximately $1.2 million dollars.
All in all, had all of the seized counterfeit items been authetic, the total Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) value of the shipments would have been approximately $1.6 million dollars.
CBP officers at the Rochester, N.Y. Port of Entry recently seized numerous fake merchandise and among the “fakes”—officers discovered a counterfeit high-end watch, that if real, would be worth more than $1 million dollars. Learn More👀➡️https://t.co/ZddJMsueVu pic.twitter.com/LAfbfbnkym
— CBP Buffalo (@CBPBuffalo) May 30, 2024
“Our CBP officers and Import Specialists continue to protect the consumer from these fake products,” said Rochester Port Director Ronald Menz. “Using experience and training, they work hard to intercept these items that defraud the consumer and legitimate business.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection also stated in the press release, “Trade in counterfeit and pirated goods threatens America’s innovation economy, the competitiveness of our businesses, the livelihoods of U.S. workers, and, in some cases, national security and the health and safety of consumers. It is also against the law to import counterfeit or pirated merchandise and individual consumers may be liable for a fine even if they did not intend to import counterfeit or pirated merchandise.”
Last week, it was also announced that Customs and Border Protection officers at the Port of Cincinnati seized 345 counterfeit championship baseball, football, basketball, and hockey rings that would have been worth approximately $1.38 million had they been sold as authentic.
It was the second time in the past two months that Cincinnati CBP officers seized counterfeit championship rings.